Top 5 problems that IoT can solve in India — Part 3

Sancia Catherine
Nov 7 · 4 min read
Overflowing dumpsters.

As discussed earlier in part 2 of the article, India is a developing country constantly under the threat of being overpowered by its increasing number of challenges. Another challenge that India faces with its increasing population is the generation of waste, its management and disposal. Nevertheless, with new technology paving its way into Indian boundaries such threats are possibly at a faster pace of being tackled. The cracked success mantra can be bridged and strengthened with Industry 4.0 methods that engage machine to machine (M2M) wireless communication.

The Third major problem in India - Waste Management

With an average of about 1.2 billion population as recorded in the 2011 census and continuous increase from then on, waste generation has been rising. Not only do households generate waste; industries, institutions and enterprise businesses contribute to waste production as well with every commodity usage. Waste management consists of three procedures (collection, processing and disposal) in the entire process. These three procedures when carried out accurately solves waste mismanagement.

Causes of unmanaged waste:

Unmanaged waste in India is the biggest challenge that the country faces on an everyday basis. As a result of waste being mismanaged, pollution and health related issues are on the rise.

  1. Lack of clarity regarding waste management procedures (collection, processing and disposal) in the entire process.
  2. Unoptimized routes of bin collection.
  3. Unmonitored waste disposal methods.
  4. Absence of real time data for effective management.
  5. Manual oriented rather than technology oriented.

In order to tackle such issues and many other associated challenges that hinder the life expectancy trends and hygiene in India, it is necessary to manage waste.

Solutions:

In the current scenario, there is no problem under the sun without a solution. All it takes is some researching, organising, investing and implementing to witness a change.

  1. Follow procedural waste management (collection, processing and disposal) to ensure remarkable results.
  2. Stop extensive use of plastics that are non-recyclable (reduce).
  3. Recycle and reuse.
  4. Waste management to be treated as a resource centric work, thereby providing employment to ragpickers and creating independent individuals with responsibility.
  5. Adopt recent technology (IoT) that aids waste management skilfully.

IoT as a solution can help establish patterns for achieving most of the above-mentioned solutions for waste management.

IoT as an immediate solution to waste management:

When IoT is introduced to waste management, the outcome is smart waste management. The entire process consists of 3 procedures; waste collection, waste processing and waste disposal. The entire process of smart waste management is to be conducted through each procedure. IoT sensors are of varied kinds and can be used in accordance to requirements in each procedure of managing waste.

  • In the waste collection procedure, IR sensors are fixed to trash bins and set at a threshold. These sensors collect data on the filling levels of waste in the bins continuously and transmit the same to a cloud through streaming analytics method. In the cloud, data is further processed, filtered and sent as alerts that are displayed on alerts portal in the user’s application.
  • It is now in readable format that enables customers/concerned authorities to access data regarding filling up of trash bins and accordingly plan waste collection routes that are to be taken by collection trucks. This saves fuel, time and prevents overflowing of bins and pickups of less filled bins sooner than required.
  • In the next procedure of smart waste management, i.e., waste processing, humidity sensors and proximity sensors can be deployed in waste processing units. The humidity sensors constantly keep a check on moisture levels, humidity and overall temperature levels within waste processing units to ensure smooth waste separation and processing. On the other hand, the proximity sensors detect types of objects in waste and accordingly segregate (wet, dry, plastic, paper and so on) for purposes of easy disposal and recycling, if needed.
  • The humidity and proximity sensors collect all the above-mentioned data consistently and transfer it to a cloud. In the cloud, data available as advanced algorithms are converted and further portrayed on application dashboards of customers in readable patterns with the support of predictive analytics method that helps steady monitoring of waste processing units.
  • The final procedure in the entire process of smart waste management is the disposal of waste. In this phase, chemical and pressure sensors can be deployed and set at thresholds in units of waste disposal. These sensors constantly record data regarding gases released during waste disposal and pressure of contents throughout the procedure, respectively.
  • Collected data through sensors are transferred to a cloud with active wireless communication of M2M. It is here that data within the data lake is assorted, restructured and converted to patterns that are easily perceivable. These perceivable patterns are shown to customers/authorities upon reaching threshold or even are monitored continuously through reliable and fast paced means as against manual methods that could become faulty. This way, with real time data accessibility, hazardous gases in dissolving/ compressing of waste can be identified and eventually prevented. Pressure levels in recycling and composting can be kept a check.

In conclusion, with smart waste management comes many advantages like that of low fuel consumption as a result of optimized trash collection routes, time management, accuracy in trash bin pick up trips with the availability of real time alerts, pollution waste reduced, check on methods of waste disposal, maintenance of waste processing and so on. These advantages bring about hygienic environment that kills various illnesses and continued environment sustainability. Therefore, IoT technology in waste management must be implemented to achieve real time positive results.

Factana as a cognitive IoT company, provides solution platforms at cost effective and user-friendly benefits. Learn more by visiting our website — https://www.fogwing.io/

If you have not yet caught a read of the first and second articles of this series, please read by clicking the linked words.

Series continues, catch up with India’s next problem and solution in the next article. Don’t miss reading it!

Factana Engineering

With Mission of Building Bond Between Humans and Machines.

Sancia Catherine

Written by

Digital Content Author @ Factana

Factana Engineering

With Mission of Building Bond Between Humans and Machines.

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