Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Overview/Background
Waste management disposal is one of the urban problem faced by mankind today.
This problem holds true due to the increase of Urbanization (Nagaraju, 2016). Without
proper management of waste, the cleanliness and health of the citizens is at risk. However,
in Zamboanga City, Waste Collection Program is still inefficient in terms of community
engagement and proper knowledge of waste disposal. The major issue in the waste
management which also applies to every developing countries is that the garbage bin or
garbage throwing area at public places gets overflowed well in advance before the
scheduled collection of the next cleaning process (Harika, 2018). People’s negligence
and carelessness may lead to illnesses and long term health problems. In Today’s
Technological revolution, communication over the internet become very popular and
provides efficient methods of developing solution to real world problems such as waste
management. The proposed system is a Garbage Collection Community Networks Alert
System (GarCCNAS) that uses an embedded system and IOT technology. The system
will simply alarm the entire chain of community when a garbage truck comes to collect
their garbage. This system will greatly help with the problem of waste management
disposal, minimizes the time it takes for the garbage collector to collect the waste.
Moreover, upon the successful deployment of this system, it can easily help with the
proper segregation of waste and maintain cleanliness of the community.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Waste management disposal is one of the urban problem faced by mankind today.
The Office of the City Environment and Natural Resources (OCENR) reports that
Zamboanga City is presently dumping at least 170 tons of garbage every day into the city’s
Sanitary Landfills, but more garbage have yet to be collected in the barangay level, thus
the need for the solid waste management ordinance to be implemented (Zamboanga
Today, 2017). Ordinance 176, otherwise known as The Solid Waste Management
Ordinance have been implemented since 2016. Under this ordinance, every household,
institutional, industrial, agricultural and commercial or business establishment in the city
is mandated to segregate and keep sorted wastes by observing the 2-bin or 3 or 4-bin
system labeled with “biodegradable” and “non-biodegradable” (recyclable and residual
wastes). The OCENR has been regularly conducting information drives and orientations
in preparation for the full implementation of Ordinance 2016-176 since October 2016.
Particular emphasis has been given to orienting the barangays as they are expected to
have greater responsibilities in the implementation of the ordinance
(Zamboangacity.gov.ph, 2017). On a more wide scale waste management issue,
according to the report on plastic pollution by International group Ocean Conservancy and
Mckinsey Center for Business and Environment, the Philippines has among the highest
trash collection rates in Southeast Asia yet it’s the third biggest source of plastic leaking
into the ocean The study further explains that approximately 2.7 million metric tons of
plastic garbage the Philippines generated each year, with 20% or 521,000 tons of which

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 ends up into the ocean (Rappler, 2015). The study also found that 74% of the plastic
leaking into the ocean from the Philippines comes from garbage that has already been
collected by haulers and garbage trucks. This amounts to 386,000 tons of plastic. Only
26% or 135,000 tons of plastics in seas actually comes from garbage that is not collected.
The proposed study seeks to address the problem on waste management disposal by
creating a community alert system using Raspberry Pi that communicate with each other
when the Garbage Truck collector is in the vicinity. With this system, the Garbage truck
collector can easily alert the residence when it is approaching their designated collecting
area. Moreover, it can also create a community wide response of on-time and proper
waste management disposal.

1.3 Objectives of the study

To implement an effective waste management collection built using a
microcontroller based Raspberry Pi which is interface with RF Modules that will use mesh
network to successfully communicate with each other when the Garbage Truck collector
is in the vicinity triggering an alert system through buzzer.
1.4 Significance of the study
“Garbage Collection Community Networks Alert System (GarCCNAS) using
Raspberry Pi” would greatly help in the implementation of the City’s Waste Management
disposal at a wide scale. With this system, the garbage collection is properly monitored
and the resident is alerted in real-time when the garbage collector is already in the vicinity
to collect their garbage, thus, creating a community wide response and reduces the illegal
dumping of garbage into open dumping site that spread illnesses that also alters the
beauty of the barangay and the city as a whole. The main benefits in creating this system
is the community wide alert in terms of garbage collection. Resident of the city will also be
more punctual to the Garbage Collection schedules that have been established, resulting
in a more efficient waste management disposal and collection.

1.5 Scope and limitations

The proposed study is specifically design for the residential houses and
establishment across different barangays of the Zamboanga City. However, this is also
applicable for the entire barangays of the Philippines. Upon completion of the project,
testing will be done on selected barangays and OCENR Garbage Trucks with the approval
of the City Government of Zamboanga.