Smart IoT-based Waste Monitoring System

Abstract

Illegal waste dumping activities are becoming more compulsive and are in fact, one of the most daunting worldwide issue today. The impacts of this activity are devastating to the environmental and human health. To prevent illegal waste dumping, sufficient waste treatment facilities, for instance roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) waste containers must be placed strategically for community use. However, the result would not be significant without an efficient waste monitoring system. Hence, an integration of IoT-based sensors and mobile apps are proposed with the objectives of providing real-time information of waste fill level, RoRo waste container geolocation and waste decomposition level to users by uploading the sensor data wirelessly to a globally accessible domain. An Arduino UNO is chosen as the microcontroller for the application. Multiple HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensors are used to measure the waste pile level at different point in the RoRo waste container, hence the fill level; NEO-6M GPS module is used to measure GPS location; MQ-3 ethanol gas sensor is used to measure ethanol gas concentration, hence the decomposition level; ESP8266 ESP-01 Wi-Fi module is used for wireless transmission of sensor data to a website. Windows 10 and Android applications are developed successfully as a platform to display the real-time information of the RoRo bins. To sum up, this research is a good approach against the illegal dumping issue as it provides the users an alternative way to dispose bulky wastes legally and conveniently.