The emergence of various products due to changes in consumption habits and lifestyle has led to an increase in garbage production. Therefore, efficient and reasonable disposal of different types of waste and improving the utilization rate of recyclable garbage are crucial to reducing the damage to the environment. The use of the Internet of Things (IoT) in waste management solutions using LoRa technology can provide a better way for garbage classification and disposal. It encourages active participation from residents and improves the efficiency of urban garbage classification management.
What is meant by waste management
Garbage is a kind of solid waste produced in human daily life and production, which needs to be harmless, resourced, socialized, and reduced due to its large emissions, complex composition, and diverse pollution. If not handled properly, we’ll suffer from its adverse effects such as environmental pollution, waste of resources, threats to production and life safety, and destruction of social harmony.
Waste management is a crucial activity that focuses on the removal, harmless disposal, and ultimate rational utilization of waste in order to achieve a cleaner environment and a higher living standard. Any collection service, process, routine or global activity, from the source of the waste to the disposal or recycling, falls within the scope of the waste management system. It may include any or all activities such as waste collection reports, waste accumulation in strategic areas, and waste processing.
Currently, possible waste disposal methods include landfills, high-temperature composting and incineration, recycling, waste to energy, bioremediation, and waste minimization. Most waste management processes are carried out manually, and with the help of smart IoT sensors, excellent values will be proposed to build an ideal smart city environment.
What are the different types of household waste
Household waste can be broken down into five different types, with some waste being recyclable and others not. Only when you are familiar with the classification of household waste can you divide your waste into these different types to ensure proper waste removal and recycling. Below is the detailed waste classification.
Liquid waste: this may be one of the most common waste types in households, and liquid waste includes wash water, organic liquids, dirty water, and waste detergents.
Solid waste: it is a kind of general household waste. Typically, solid waste is divided into four types, including paper waste, plastic waste, metals and tins, glass and ceramic.
Organic waste: it is considered a type of regular waste found in households, and it includes rotten meat, garden waste, food waste and leaf manure. Microorganisms are formed from these types of organic waste. Organic waste contributes to methane production in landfills everywhere.
Recyclable waste: it is a process for converting rubbish items and using them again. Paper materials, furniture, glass, metal and cloth are considered recyclable rubbish.
Hazardous Waste: including waste batteries, wastewater silver thermometers, waste lamps, expired drugs, etc. These items require special disposals to prevent environmental pollution.
How LoRa home waste management solution works
The main innovations introduced by LoRa are low-power consumption and long-range, thus providing a basis for creating a Low Power Wide Area Network to support the LoRa household waste management solution. The LoRa smart waste disposal management consists of four main parts: LoRa-based sensors, LoRa gateways, network server, and application.
In terms of internal monitoring of garbage bins, sensors embedded with LoRa technology are mounted inside the waste bin, and periodically transmit the collected garbage space occupation status, dumping status, and the capacity of the garbage bin to the LoRa gateway thousands of meters away. The gateway in turn forwards the data to the network where the data will be analyzed. Then the network server sends all the data received from a set of gateways to the application, and the application server will make optimized decisions based on the garbage overflow situation and temperature monitoring. Then the best recycling route for garbage collection vehicles will be proposed.
LoRa technology also plays an important role in the external environment monitoring of garbage cans. LoRa gateway and the camera built with the street lamp pole are connected through the network port, and the surveillance video screen of the garbage can collected by the camera is transmitted to the waste management platform, realizing the visual remote monitoring and management of the garbage can field environment.
Applications of LoRa technology in household waste management
Using the intelligent operation platform and LoRa technology, the garbage bins are systematically and intelligently managed, and the garbage bins distributed throughout the city are connected into an organic whole so that the sanitation staff can fully grasp the garbage storage situation and removal needs in the city, and effectively improve the efficiency of urban sanitation. For many areas, the land is sparsely populated, and this functional advantage will be particularly obvious.
Monitoring status of garbage bins
Various LoRa sensors are applied to monitor the status of garbage cans, including overflow, fireproof, waterproof, dumping, positioning, and so on. The most commonly used sensors are ultrasonic sensors and Temperature&Humidity sensors, which could monitor the fill level and temperature of trash cans. With the assistance of ultrasonic sensors, it’s possible to measure the gap between sensors and the object, thus measuring the capacity state of the trash can. These sensors can be placed in public trash cans in outdoor and indoor locations around the city.
Optimizing waste collection times and routes
LoRaWAN location trackers are installed both on the garbage trucks and trash cans, which can be used to monitor the specific removal routes of household waste. If one garbage container fills, a message will be automatically generated to the management platform, and the administrators can identify and forecast the garbage cans that need pickups, then the information is transmitted to the specified waste collection truck of that area. It helps to make precise and efficient analytical suggestions to collect waste in less time while saving fuel, workforce, costs and maintenance of the vehicle fleet.
Determining the number of waste bins needed
With the built-in sensors observing and collecting the information of trash cans, the number of various waste containers in a specific area will be determined intelligently. The waste management server will assess the number of waste bins for a given area taking into account the proportion of waste disposed of that can be recycled. Besides, the waste container provision in these areas will be periodically reported to ensure that it is appropriate and adequate. The improvement of the waste storage amenity will have a positive impact on waste management disposal and recycling.
Detecting garbage classification
Through camera capture, smart garbage can realize intelligent identification and early warning of beverage bottles, metal, batteries, glass and other garbage. The collected and detected data is then transmitted to the intelligent platform through the gateway, thereby supervising the garbage classification behavior of each resident. Improving the basic equipment for garbage classification plays a very significant role in boosting the efficiency of garbage classification and disposal.
Advantages of using LoRaWAN waste management solution
Due to its various applications, there are plenty of benefits that a smart household waste management solution could offer. With the help of different LoRa sensors, it’s easier to track the waste level of waste containers throughout all routes and help your city meet its sustainability goals.
Lower operating costs: Real-time information received from smart bins helps optimize vehicle routing, thus saving manpower and fuel.
Unattended trash bin: The fill levels of trash bins will be detected and notification will be sent to the authorities in real-time when bins are close to being filled.
Data analysis of waste generation: The LoRa smart waste management solution provides a data analysis platform, which informs authorities of waste generation models and future models.
Reduce carbon footprint: The Internet of Things can optimize routes to reduce fuel consumption and carbon footprint.
Create a better and healthier environment
MOKOLoRa is your best waste management solution partner
IoT technologies are indeed becoming ubiquitous and are helping waste management become more economical and efficient. MOKOLoRa has been focused on designing IoT solutions for hardware and software, and it can become your professional partner in LoRa technology. Our LoRa sensors and gateways have a wide use not only in waste management solution but also in smart offices, smart homes, smart cities, and more. If you are interested in our LoRa waste management solution, please feel free to contact our IoT expert.