Cloud-based smart waste management for smart cities

Full text

Cloud-based Smart Waste Management for Smart
Cities
Mohammad Aazam, Marc St-Hilaire, Chung-Horng Lung, Ioannis Lambadaris
Department of Systems and Computer Engineering
Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
aazam@ieee.org, marc_st_hilaire@carleton.ca, chlung@sce.carleton.ca, ioannis@sce.carleton.ca
Abstract— With the ever increasing population, urbanization,
migration issues, and change in lifestyle, municipal solid waste
generation levels are increasing significantly. Hence, waste
management becomes a challenge faced not only by the
developing nations, but also the developed and advanced
countries. The overall waste management involves three main
types of entities: 1) users who generate waste, 2) waste
collectors/city admin., 3) stakeholders. Waste management
directly effects the lifestyle, healthcare, environment, recycling
and disposal, and several other industries. Current waste
management trends are not sophisticated enough to achieve a
robust and efficient waste management mechanism. It is very
important to have a smart way of managing waste, so that not
only the waste status is notified in-time when to be collected, but
also, all the stakeholders are made aware in timely fashion that
what type of waste in what quantity is coming up at what
particular time. This will not only help in attracting and
identifying stakeholders, but also aids in creating more effective
ways of recycling and minimizing waste also making the overall
waste management more efficient and environment friendly.
Keeping all this in mind, we propose a cloud-based smart waste
management mechanism in which the waste bins are equipped
with sensors, capable of notifying their waste level status and
upload the status to the cloud. The stakeholders are able to access
the desired data from the cloud. Moreover, for city
administration and waste management, it will be possible to do
route optimization and select path for waste collection according
to the statuses of waste bins in a metropolis, helping in fuel and
time efficiency.
Index Terms—waste management; smart waste management;
smart cities; IoT; Cloud of Things; cloud computing; pay-as-you-
throw; Big Data; healthcare.
I. INTRODUCTION
Waste is produced wherever there is life and humans are
living. It will be a part of everyday lifecycle as long as the life
exists. According to World Bank’s review report [1], in 2012,
the global Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) generation levels
were around 1.3 billion tons per year. This figure is expected to
reach 2.2 billion tons per year by 2025. Per capita waste
generation rates are between 1.2 to 1.42 kg per person (varying
by region, country, and city) per day in the next one decade or
so. Further in the report, in region wise waste generation
statistics, sub-Saharan Africa approximately generates 62
million tons per year. Statistics for per capita waste generation
are low on an average with 0.65 kg/capita/day. However, the
span is wide, ranging from 0.09 to 3.0 kg per person per day.
Highest per capita in this region is in islands, mainly due to
tourism industry. East Asia and Pacific region annually
generates 270 million tons of waste. The main contributor in
this regard is China, with 70% of the regional total. Per capita
average is 0.95 and it ranges from 0.44-4.3 kg/person/day.
Eastern and Central Asia, excluding eight countries where data
was not available, generate 93 million tons of waste per year.
Per capita daily average is 1.1 kg, ranging from 0.29-2.1
kg/capita/day. Latin America and Caribbean generate 160
million tons waste annually with an average of 1.1
kg/capita/day, ranging from 0.1-14 kg/capita/day. Middle East
and North Africa generate 63 million tons/year, per capita daily
range of 0.16-5.7 kg/capita/day, averaging 1.1 kg/capita/day.
South Asia has a figure of 70 million tons annual waste
generation, with per capita average of 0.45 kg/day, ranging
from 0.12-5.1 kg per person daily.
With the increasing population, increasing urbanization,
and change in the lifestyle, waste management has become a
challenge not only for the developing countries, but also for the
developed ones [2]. By 2050, more than 84% population in the
developed countries and more than 64% in the developing ones
will be in urban areas [3]. City administrations and waste
management organizations in different metropolises face the
challenge to provide efficient and effective system to collect,
dispose-off properly, and recycle the waste, keeping in view
the health standards and environment friendliness. In waste
management, collection, transfer, and transport practices are
negatively influenced by improper bin collection systems, lack
of information about collection schedule, inefficient route
planning, insufficient resources, and other factors [2].
Moreover, waste facilities also significantly affect the way
waste disposal is done. Inadequate supply, insufficiently
equipped waste containers, and longer distance to these
containers increase the probability of dumping waste in open
areas and roadsides [2] [4]. Relative to recycling, social
influences, altruistic, and regulatory factors are some of the key
reasons of developing a robust recycling system. Enabling
factors, which include technical, cultural, and financial, also
affect waste management. Better technology and better ways of
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handling waste enables a systematic approach in this regard.
Improvement in waste management methodology is required to
provide effective, efficient, and sustainable solid waste
services; which have an influence on many actors as well as are
affected by some of them. Better technology will also help in
identifying stakeholders [4].
It is evident that a much more efficient and effective waste
management mechanism is required, which helps in identifying
the stakeholders, informing them in time about what is coming
up in the waste and in what quantity. Additionally, the waste
related data should be stored in a more accessible location, like
a cloud, where stakeholders are able to analyze and adapt
accordingly. In this paper, we present Cloud-based Smart
WAste Management (CloudSWAM), where waste bins are
connected to the cloud and data is stored there in real time.
There are separate bins for each category of waste, namely:
organic, plastic and bottles, and metal. Equipped with sensors,
bins update their status to the cloud and other stakeholders,
making it a more efficient and convenient way to handle waste.
The waste collection is also done when it is required, helping
the waste management to decide a cost-effective route while
collecting the waste within a metropolis.
In rest of the paper, section II discusses already done
works. Section III is on smart waste management. Section IV
discusses the scenarios and advantages associated with smart
waste management. We conclude in section V.
II. RELATED WORK
Since smart cities concept is still novel and research and
development work is ongoing, not a lot of work is done on
smart waste management, making use of the technologies like
cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT). In this section,
we present the most relevant related work done in this regard.
Guerrero et al. [2] provide a review of several research
papers on waste management also including their outcome of
visiting 22 countries in 3 continents. The authors come to a
conclusion that all the stakeholders and factors impacting waste
management systems are affected by the way waste is
collected, separated, and transported for recycling and other
disposal. The authors emphasize on the importance of an
efficient and smarter way of reporting the waste and creating
means for the recycling agencies to analyze the quantity and
timing of the generated relevant waste material. Caniato et al.
[3] provide a method of surveying solid waste management
through the integration of Social Network Analysis (SNA) and
Stakeholder Analysis (SA). The outcome of the survey suggest
that stakeholders are more concerned about the communication
in the waste management and seek improvement in that regard.
Moreover, stakeholders’ involvement should be more in system
development planning and waste management should be
redesigned to identify stakeholders as well. Service
beneficiaries should directly be made part in order to attain
sustainability of the solid waste services. This is possible with
more advanced technologies in this area.
Yang [5] state that with the complex situation of rapidly
growing population, increase in migration, instable situations
in various countries, unavoidable change in the climate, energy
and resource limitations, etc. pose a challenge in addressing
diverse interests, values, and objectives, inherent among
stakeholders. Therefore, a more efficient and effective
mechanism is required, such that the stakeholders are aware of
what is relevant to them and in what measure. Stakeholders can
thereafter prepare and effectively handle the waste. Greene 
Tonjes [6] provide an analysis of waste management in New
York State, USA. The authors state that in the USA, from 19th
century till 1960s, public health was a key driver of waste
practices. However, the drivers have shifted to environmental
concerns now. This shows the importance of a more
sophisticated waste management mechanism. Kollikkathara et
al. [7] also emphasize on the same points while discussing
USA’s waste management trends. Zhang and Huang [8]
reiterate the importance of in-time collection of solid waste,
since waste management activities result in releasing
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) in to the atmosphere which results
in global climate change. Mitigation of GHG emissions is very
important and is only possible with timely notification and
collection of waste.
Moh and Manaf [9] provide an overview of the solid waste
recycling policy in Malaysia. The authors state that even being
an Emerging Economy, Malaysia still heavily relies on
landfilling as a disposal of waste. This has resulted in space
limitation, health issues, and environmental problems. One of
the best ways to tackle the recycling issue in Malaysia and
other such nations is to have a proper notification and data
availability, so that the type and quantity of recycling material
is known and stakeholders are involved in the process in an
effective way. Al-Jarallah and Aleisa [10] provide a study on
characterizing municipal solid waste in Kuwait. The authors
mention that the daily average of waste generation is 1.01
kg/person. Most of the waste is of organic matter, comprising
44.4%. Rest is composed of 11.2% film and 8.6% of
corrugated fibers as the noteworthy types of waste. In order to
have a complete waste management mechanism, it is very
important to have a smart way of notifying the quantity of each
type of waste and involve the stakeholders effectively. Same is
the conclusion of Bing et al. [11], who investigate EU countries
waste management mechanisms. Zhang et al. [12] mention in
their work that one of the important IoT applicability in cities is
food industry. It is very important to monitor, analyze, and
manage the food industry and it is possible by keeping track of
the organic waste. Provenance of waste also plays an important
role in managing food industry and other related processes.
In rest of the document, the entity that collects waste is
referred to as waste collectors.
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III. SMART WASTE MANAGEMENT
Although the idea of sensors-based waste bins [13] [14]
[15] [16], capable of notifying waste level status, is not new to
its entirety, however, the goal here is to go beyond an
automatic waste bin and make use of cloud computing
paradigm to evolve a more robust and effective smart waste
management mechanism. Smart waste management is not
limited to notifying the trash level. There is a lot associated
with it if it is to be called ‘smart’ in a true sense. Waste
management is linked to different types of entities, one of
which is stakeholders. Different stakeholders, including
recyclers, importers and exporters, food industry, healthcare,
research, environment protection and related organizations,
and tourism industry are a few examples to mention. It is very
important and the whole process starting from waste
generation to disposal is tracked in real-time or close to it.
Later in this section the importance and related scenarios in
this regard are discussed.
The basic form of waste management currently prevailing
in most parts of the world is presented in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Waste management generic workflow.
It is shown that the whole process of waste management
has an impact on the environment as well as stakeholders in
different aspects. Environmentally, it effects public health and
hygiene, tourism, housing – since it depends a lot on the waste
management in a particular area while finding an
accommodation, economy, and transport/communication.
In case of stakeholders, it effects various industries,
including recycling, disposal, import/export, food, various
related businesses, waste collectors, and healthcare, etc.
In the proposed CloudSWAM, each bin is equipped with
sensors to notify its waste level. Figure 2 shows the smart bin
with (a), (b), and (c) show different bins for each category of
waste, namely: organic, plastic/paper/bottle, and metal. In this
way, each type of waste is already separated and through the
status, it is known that how much of waste is collected and of
what type. This method of pre-separated waste is adopted in
places like Korea, to name one, and it helps a great deal in
efficiently dealing with the waste management process.
Illustrative example in (d) shows an alert message once the
waste level reaches a particular level where waste collectors
have to plan collection of it. While (e) shows an exhausted
bin, therefore, the user and the waste collectors are updated
without the need of reaching it and/or opening it up to see the
status.
Figure 2. Smart bins for different waste categories, equipped with waste
status notification.
In this way, not only the users are aware of which bin can
still accommodate waste, but also the waste collectors are
updated. Thus, the waste collectors can schedule their visit
according to the waste statuses in different areas of a
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metropolis. As a result, not only route optimization is done
and best possible path is selected, but also, the visit is made
exactly when it is needed. This also helps in better resource
management. The next section discusses the advantages in this
regard in detail.
Figure 3 shows the overall architecture of CloudSWAM. It
is shown that ubiquitous availability of data stored in the cloud
can be useful for different entities and stakeholders in different
ways. Analysis and planning can start from as soon as waste
starts gathering and up to when recycling and import/export
related matters are conducted.
Figure 3. Cloud-based smart waste management architecture.
IV. CLOUD-SWAM SCENARIOS AND ADVANTAGES
This section presents some of the noteworthy scenarios
where proposed architecture can be applied and the
advantages it bears with it.
A. Timely waste collection
Collection of waste is an important part of waste
management process. Timely and efficient way of collecting
waste leads to better health, hygiene, and disposal. In different
countries, different schedules and ways are adopted to collect
waste. For example, in Canada, USA, Europe, and many other
parts of the world, waste collectors visit a certain area of the
city on a fixed scheduled day to collect waste. In Korea, since
hygiene is of utmost priority, the visit is random and mostly
every other day of the week, except weekend. If there is not
enough waste to be collected, the visit is unserviceable. Hence,
either hygiene is compromised or fuel efficiency and resources
are compromised. The best way is to notify the waste status to
the concerned department. In this way, a better planning can be
made and in-time service is provided. Since our proposed smart
waste management is associated with cloud, the statuses of all
waste bins throughout the city or even country are accessible
from the cloud. All the stakeholders, including recycling
agencies, can take a note of that and plan accordingly.
B. Route optimization
In addition to the above mentioned advantage, when
preparation to collect waste is being done, the collectors can
plan a better and fuel efficient route, according to the
conditions of waste bins in a city area. In this way,
unnecessary visits are avoided and resources are not wasted.
An illustrative scenario is shown in Figure 4, which shows
routing on the basis of waste-bin statuses.
Figure 4. Route optimization and planning.
C. Recycling and disposal
Better ways of recycling and disposal are dependent upon
each type of recyclable waste and its quantity. With smart bins,
separate for each type of waste, the stakeholders will be able to
see through the cloud and analyze what type of waste is
coming up and in what magnitude. In this way, better
arrangements can be done and efficient ways of recycling are
adopted in a dynamic way.
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D. Resource management
The overall waste management process involves a lot of
resources. Starting from the waste collection bins, vehicles,
human resource, separation and dumping locations, disposal
locations, etc. Based on the waste generation trends of a
particular city and/or area, resources can be effectively
managed since the data is available live through the cloud.
E. Food industry planning
Most of the waste generated is either organic or comes from
food/organic items. For example, a lot of waste is generated
because of packaged food and fast food, like cans, beverage
containers, Styrofoam packs and cups, etc. In UK, fast food
litter makes up more than 31% of the total garbage [17]. It is
costly and time taking to dispose them off properly. Food
industry can plan according to the trends of a certain locality.
In this way, not only waste material can be minimized, but
also, food trends and habits of an area can be coped in a much
more operative way. In addition to that, food industry will be
able to plan better regarding when and where to open
restaurants based on waste quantity in a particular area. For
instance, considering any particular residential area in a city, if
it is unknown that what are the waste generation trends, it
would be difficult to judge whether opening a restaurant there
is going to work or not. It has to be analyzed first that what is
the population of that area and of what age group and overall
financial status. However, with waste data, it would be easy to
know that if a particular quantity of waste (according to its
category as well) is being generated per particular period, then
there is a scope of opening a restaurant there. CloudSWAM
can help achieve this in practical ways.
F. Taxation
According to the UN, one third of all food produced is
wasted [18]. Food waste results in greenhouse gas emissions
and is a reason of lot of health issues also giving birth to
several insects and bugs. The city of Seattle in USA has
already imposed fines on food waste. According to Seattle
Municipal, a household will be fined for $1 if their trash
contains more than 10% of food waste [18]. In France, more
than 7m tons of food is wasted annually [19]. With
CloudSWAM keeping track of each kind of waste, better
taxation and fine imposition can be performed on unnecessary
waste generation. This can be on pay-as-you-throw basis.
G. Big Data analytics
A plethora of Big Data analytics can be applied on the data
gathered from waste management. Big Data practices can be
used to reduce waste generation and improve its management.
Big Data analytics applied on waste management related data,
combined with geographic and socio-economic data, can help
in understanding spatial distribution of waste. Data being
stored in the cloud helps in creating further services from it and
analyzing it in a more in-depth way. Relevant stakeholders can
be attracted and given opportunities to work further in
mitigating waste disposal and other issues. Moreover,
additional stakeholders can also be found out in this way.
Figure 5 shows an example of Big Data analytics being applied
on the data gathered from all over the city, country, or region,
which helps in creating several other services.
Figure 5. Big Data analytics applied on the gathered data resulting in
various additional services.
H. Healthcare
Various healthcare stakeholders, like medical universities
and research centers, pharmacies, hospitals and clinics, etc.,
can take benefit from the gathered waste management data and
foresee what type of diseases a particular locality is more prone
to and how to prevent from certain types of insects and bugs
from breeding.
I. Waste-based energy production
Waste-to-Energy (WtE) or also known as Energy-from-Waste
(EfW), is a process of generating energy from waste in the
form of electricity or heat. Waste is treated through combustion
process to produce heat or electricity or combustible fuel
commodity, such as methanol, ethanol, or methane. In the
perspective of energy technology, waste is categorized as either
wet or dry. Wet waste comes from food wastes, manures,
biosolids, etc. On the other hand, dry waste is a result of non-
recyclable plastics, wood-based biomass, crop stubble, etc. Wet
waste is treated through biological processes, like anaerobic
digestion and fermentation, which results in methane gas and
ethanol. Dry waste is treated through thermal processes, like
combustion, gasification, and pyrolysis [20]. With waste
having different types and characteristics, it is necessary to
make sure that the selected technology for WtE/EfW is fully
compatible with the waste stream. Many WtE projects have
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been unsuccessful because of poor feedstock-technology match
[20]. Availability of detailed data in the cloud on each type of
waste helps in achieving state-of-the-art planning and
technology-matching.
V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
Advancements in technology in various sectors of life has
created avenues of sophisticated service delivery. With the
increasing population and changes in the lifestyle, waste
management is another sector where current technological
repertoire can be applied in a more operative way. Different
environmental entities and stakeholders are involved in the
waste management process. It is very important to have a
robust way of managing the waste, so that not only the whole
process becomes efficient, but also, the disposal of waste is
done in a productive way. Besides, food industry, healthcare,
tourism, and other such departments can take benefit from the
available resources related with waste management. With the
proposed cloud-based waste management, a smarter way of
handling and disposal of waste is created, which also helps in
various futuristic research problems related with food, hygiene,
environment, socio-cultural traits, lifestyle, etc.
In the future, this work can be extended in the context of
case or country specific waste generation trends. Big Data
analysis can be done on the gathered data from different
municipalities.
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