WASTE SEGREGATION USING SMART DUSTBIN

PROJECT REFERENCE NO.: 40S_BE_0621

COLLEGE : ACHARYA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, BENGALURU
BRANCH : DEPARTMENT OF MECHNICAL ENGINEERING
GUIDE : PROF. SHADAKSHARI R.
STUDENTS : MR. H.N. CHAITHANYA DAS
MR. JESWIN JOSE
MR. KUSHAL R.
MR. JAGADEESH H.

Introduction:
In recent times, garbage disposal has become a huge cause for concern in the world. A
voluminous amount of waste that is generated is disposed by means which have an adverse effect
on the environment. The common method of disposal of the waste is by unplanned and
uncontrolled open dumping at the landfill sites. This method is injurious to human health, plant
and animal life. This harmful method of waste disposal can generate liquid leachate which
contaminate surface and ground waters can harbor disease vectors which spread harmful diseases
and can degrade aesthetic value of the natural environment and it is an unavailing use of land
resources. In India, rag pickers play an important role in the recycling of urban solid waste. Rag
pickers and conservancy staff have higher morbidity due to infections of skin, respiratory,
gastrointestinal tract and multisystem allergic disorders, in addition to a high prevalence of bites
of rodents, dogs and other vermin. Dependency on the rag-pickers can be diminished if
segregation takes place at the source of municipal waste generation.
When the waste is segregated into basic streams such as wet, dry and metallic, the waste
has a higher potential of recovery, and consequently, recycled and reused. The wet waste fraction
is often converted either into compost or methane-gas or both. Compost can replace demand for
chemical fertilizers, and biogas can be used as a source of energy. The metallic waste could be
reused or recycled. Even though there are large scale industrial waste segregators present, it is
always much better to segregate the waste at the source itself. The benefits of doing so are that a
higher quality of the material is retained for recycling which means that more value could be
recovered from the waste. The occupational hazard for waste workers is reduced. Also, the
segregated waste could be directly sent to the recycling and processing plant instead of sending it
to the segregation plant then to the recycling plant.
We are implementing a smart dustbin which is a cheap, easy to use solution for a segregation
system at households, so that it can be sent directly for processing. It is designed to sort the
refuse into metallic waste, wet waste and dry waste.

Objectives:
The main sources of waste are industrial and domestic waste. This project mainly
concentrates on domestic waste whose value is unrecognized since people don’t spend time on
segregating waste into their basic streams. The wet waste generated can be used to generate
biogas, metallic and dry waste can be send for recycling, if metallic waste is left untreated then it
becomes a threat to animal and plant lives. If waste is separated at household level then they can
be directly sent for recycling instead of sending them to industries first for segregation which
becomes a huge task and the waste does not get segregated accurately. The methods adopted for
waste segregation in industries is hazardous to human health since it makes use of x-rays and
infrared rays.
The environmental risks associated with poor waste management are well known and
understood.
The main aim of the project is to segregate waste at source level to wet, dry and metallic such
that waste is not wasted but there value is understood and can be converted to a source of energy,
in a cost effective way.

Methodology:
Process block diagram:

When waste is dumped IR sensor detects the entry of the waste. The sensitivity of the IR
Sensor is tuned using the potentiometer. The potentiometer is tunable in both the directions.
Initially tune the potentiometer in clockwise direction such that the Indicator LED starts glowing.
Once that is achieved, turn the potentiometer just enough in anti-clockwise direction to turn off
the Indicator LED. At this point the sensitivity of the receiver is maximum. Thus, its sensing
distance is maximum at this point. The transmitter continuously transmits the signal to detect the
presence of obstacle. When the waste is dumped into the bin the receiver receives the reflected
signal from the waste and starts the entire process by the activation of microcontroller.
Microcontroller AT89S52 is used which is a low-power, high-performance CMOS 8-bit
microcontroller with 8K bytes of in-system programmable Flash memory. The microcontroller in
turn activates DC motor by executing program to rotate the motor in the forward direction. Two
DC motors are used for the smooth rotation of the conveyor belt. Both DC motors rotates in
forward direction allowing the waste to be detected by the sensors connected in series near the
conveyor belt.
A belt conveyor system consists of two or more pulleys (sometimes referred to as drums),
with an endless loop of carrying medium the conveyor belt that rotates about them. One or both
of the pulleys are powered, moving the belt and the waste on the belt forward. The powered
pulley is called the drive pulley while the unpowered pulley is called the idler pulley.
Sensors are connected near conveyor belt to detect different types of waste. First sensor
connected is the proximity sensor to detect metal waste and which is having highest priority
among the two sensors connected. This sensor gives accurate results even for smaller objects.
Proximity sensor continuously emits electromagnetic waves and if any metallic object is passing
over the belt within the range of proximity sensor, the metallic object gets energized and
retransmits electromagnetic field of its own to the sensor. Microcontroller continuously checks
the status of proximity sensor. If sensor is detecting metal then program is written to select that
particular bin using stepper motor. If the waste is not metallic then it passes through another
sensor connected near belt itself called the moisture sensor. Metal waste is connected in such a
way, so that it makes a contact with every type of waste. If there is short in metal sensor then
waste is of wet type. Microcontroller continuously checks the status of moisture sensor and if it
is getting activated then bin for wet waste is selected using stepper motor otherwise by default it
is dry waste.
Three bins are placed in circular fashion with 120 degrees spacing between them. Based on
the waste detected microcontroller activates stepper motor and the program is written for the
stepper to rotate in clockwise and anticlockwise direction to select a particular bin. Buzzer
produces beep sound when any one of the wastes in sensed by any one of the sensors.

Results and conclusions

Our system mainly concentrates on separating waste at a less cost. In our system, we
have made use of AT89S52 compared to MSP430 which is costlier. In order to differentiate
between wet and dry waste a moisture sensor is used instead of a capacitive sensor which
increases the complexity by making it difficult to differentiate between dry and wet waste by
making use of dielectric values of waste substances. In the former system to separate metallic
waste inductive sensors were used which again requires the controller to be preprogrammed with
the threshold values, this necessity is removed in our system by making use of a proximity
sensor which directly detects metals.
At industrial level methods used for segregation of waste are hazardous to human health
and also the process involves manual effort and also complete segregation is not obtained. By
segregating waste at root source, not only can waste be recycled but beauty of the surroundings
can be maintained.

Scope of future work

Smart dustbin can segregate only three types of wastes. In future improvement can be
done to segregate more number of wastes like plastic, glass, toxic waste, separation of different
metals. This can be improved to segregate mix waste dumped at a time using different high
accurate sensors and other technologies and segregation of mix waste can also be achieved by
using a servo motor to give jerks to conveyor belt so that mix waste gets separated. Size of smart
dustbin can be made compact using different technologies and different methodologies. Some
additional feature can be added like generating power or biogas generation at root source itself.