RFID Solution For Waste Management

Each waste bin or bucket has an RFID tag attached to it. Every garbage truck has an RFID reader attached to it. When the waste bin is lifted and emptied into the truck, the truck reader reads the RFID tag and transmits this data to the wireless handheld in the truck driver’s cabin. This data is encrypted and cannot be viewed by the staff. At the end of the route, the data is transmitted to the central server, where any supervisor or manager can view it. This data will include garbage bin number, collected at what time & date, who was the garbage collector ( assigned to the truck) & so on. This vastly improves the traceability of the trucks and allows the authorities to monitor & improve the productivity of this activity. It makes the entire garbage collection function, very transparent.

Present Situation Of Waste Management:

Waste Management In many countries today, the local authorities, or the contractors appointed by them, are responsible for the collection of garbage from urban neighborhoods. Every urban neighborhood has a large garbage bin allocated to it. Residents or their domestic helpers, typically carry their garbage to these collection bins. Alternatively, garbage collection personnel collect garbage door to door and then dump it in these large bins. These large bins are then carried away by personnel traveling along with the garbage trucks. The truck will typically have a fixed route every day. It will lift the large filled garbage bin, empty its contents into the truck, and keep the empty bin again at the same place. There will be hundreds of such trucks along different routes every day.

Problems With The Present System

• Tracking these trucks and the personnel who man them is a problem for the local authorities. There is no way to monitor that garbage has been collected every day.
• No way to verify the time taken to travel along every route, or to verify the time taken to collect say x number of bins of garbage every day.
• No way to verify whether the staff appointed for the job are really busy or do only half the bins in a day that can be easily done.

Future Scenarios Of Waste Management

In Europe, a municipality in Greece has already implemented such a system and more are likely to follow. The attractiveness of the system will make other local city councils and municipal authorities to implement these kind of systems. It will improve governance, and cleanliness and ultimately help the ecology. The ROl is very good, given the returns are not just in X dollars, but also have environmental side benefits.