Waste Management

Waste management involves the collection and disposal of degradable and non-degradable waste. Waste management encompasses a variety of services, including garbage pickup, waste disposal, and recycling. Technology can assist in the optimization of waste management practices.

Problems, Applications, and Solutions: Optimization of waste collection routes

The waste collection involves sending trucks into the community to collect garbage and recycling from residents and businesses. Collection routes through the city must be both efficient – to avoid wasting time, fuel, and resources – and thorough – to avoid missing residents. Waste collection trips are unnecessary where garbage containers are near empty while others are overflowing. Many factors go into calculating collecting routes, including road traffic, weather, and availability of trucks and workers. Smart waste collection tools will use traffic and weather monitoring sensors to optimize collection routes for a given day and based on demand. By optimizing waste collection routes, municipalities can significantly reduce collection costs, improve services and public sanitation, and address environmental issues.

Technologies

Sewage System Overflows – The sewage system overflows can help mitigate excess wastes in the event of a natural disaster or malfunction of the waste management system.

Truck Dispatching – This is a traditional approach that uses manual analysis of routes and traffic to dispatch trucks and city workers during a pre-defined scheduled time to collect waste. Different trucks for specific types of waste are typically used.

LoTech Sensors – These sensors use waste level sensing applications to determine when garbage containers are full and ready for collection, alleviating the need to attend the location unless necessary. The sensors may detect temperature, weight, and tilt within the bins. LoTech sensors can also be used for automated waste and recycling sorting with spectrometers, x-rays, optical-based, and spectral imaging to detect paper, glass, metals, plastics, and organic waste.

Smart garbage bins – Solar-powered garbage bins have ultrasonic fill-level sensors and compactor equipment to compress garbage and increase capacity of the container. The bins have a communication node to transmit the data for processing, such as a Wi-Fi unit which can also act as a public Wi-Fi hotspot.

Video cameras – This is the use of traffic and security cameras to monitor traffic routes in the city and possibly redirect waste trucks during waste collections. Waste collection operations can utilize existing smart traffic control devices to inform collection trucks of optimized routes.

Cloud-based platforms – This uses algorithms in GPS, WiFi connection, and RFID in smart bins to plan and schedule waste collection time and route. The collection of data is uploaded to the cloud collection cloud for processing and validated by truck dispatchers after the collection process is complete.

Geographical Information System (GIS) – This uses spatial and non-spatial information such as ArcGIS Network (Analyst extension) or 3D Network Dataset to solve routing and optimization problems. The information collected includes population density, waste generation capacity, road network, storage bins, and collection vehicles.

Digital tracking and payment for waste disposal – Mobile apps or web portals can allow customers to digitally track and pay for waste disposal services. Local residents can track their garbage collection schedule, use interactive maps for depot and low-fill smart bin locations, and report issues with bins. Apps can also have billing systems for residents to pay for their household waste disposal services and change their billing rates in a volume-based program based on the size of their garbage bins.

Automated waste disposal bins – These bins are located throughout a city and is connected to underground pipes to a waste-processing centre. Waste is automatically sorted, recycled, buried or burned for energy.

Smart waste collection – Smart waste collection incorporates various IoT sensor devices, data-based management and logistic platforms to deploy collection trucks when necessary and optimize travel routes. The sensor data can automatically trigger scheduled pick-ups for specific locations using GPS and RFID technology.

Optimization of waste collection routes – Fleet management software platforms manage waste collection operations can be used for real-time monitoring and by truck drivers to see optimized routes, monitor vehicle status, control dispatch times, and track driver behaviour and fuel consumption. It will be connected to cloud-based platforms that are processing the collected data to identify the optimal routes and times to dispatch collection trucks.

Managing Liability Issues

Privacy

Issues.

⚠️ The optimization of Waste Management requires planning and monitoring. For this to be effective, [IoT] devices collect, store, and transfer data and this may include the unintentional collection of personal information. Therefore, there are liabilities such as privacy concerns and security concerns, particularly where household data is collected and can be attributed to an identifiable person. .

Managing Issues.

✅ Count, don’t track. Record numbers of smart bin use frequency, truck deployment, optimal collection times, and types of waste. Numerical data about the frequency of waste collection will not necessarily track identities.

✅ Inform users of privacy issues related to technology. A disclaimer can be provided to users about data collection and its privacy implications when engaging with interactive digital waste disposal apps. Municipalities should also inform haulers about privacy implications from monitoring vehicle status and driver behaviour.

✅ Obtain consent. Consent should be obtained when the user downloads waste disposal apps, and again when signing up for the service. They should be informed of the purpose of data collection, use and retention of data.

✅ De-identify as soon as possible. If personal information absolutely must be collected, it should be stripped away as soon as possible.

✅ Limit data collection to only that which is needed. Serious consideration and justification should be made for the collection of sensitive personal information. Information associated with a household information regarding the types and volumes of waste should not include specific addresses.

✅ Ensure that partners follow collection restrictions. When purchasing data from private companies, ensure that they are upholding their own privacy obligations under relevant legislation.

✅ Follow good privacy practices.

Security Issues

Issues.

⚠️ Privacy issues inherent to smart waste management technologies will include security issues, as data that does not initially identify individuals can do so in combination with other data. The software programs and hardware components will require security measures to prevent unauthorized access to the data. There is a potential for a greater vulnerability with a large network of connected devices because a single breached device may expose the entire network to unauthorized access.

Managing Issues.

✅ Encryption. Encryption protects personal information by a process of scrambling data so that it can only be accessed with a unique decryption key which will translate the data back into its original readable form. There are several types of encryption algorithms to protect the actual personal information data as well as the channels of communication in which the data travels.

✅ Authentication. This prevents unauthorized access to the network control of these technologies using processes that verify their clearance to access the data. The level of authentication should commensurate with the risks.

✅ Limit access to data. Physical, organization and technological measures to limit access to data should be in place to only allow access to those who need to handle the information.

✅ Limit access to data. Physical, organization and technological measures to limit access to data should be in place to only allow access to those who need to handle the information.

✅ Regular audits and security patches. Where city data is stored on cloud-based servers, the cloud platform should be subject to consistent audits and security patches, with a data recovery strategy in place.

✅ Ensure that partners have adequate safeguards. All partners or contractors should have adequate safeguards depending on the sensitivity of the information in their control.

✅ Follow good security practices.

Procurement

Issues.

⚠️ Most waste management solutions will involve the procurement of products or services from third parties, which will raise procurement issues concerning the long-term costs of the technology, depending on the complexity and volume of hardware to be installed. Municipalities also enter Public-Private Partnerships (P3) for solid waste and recycling which may potentially raise issues about actual costs, service quality, and reduced transparency and accountability.

Managing Issues.

✅ Procurement issues should be dealt with by following sound procurement practices.

✅ Intellectual property issues will arise over ownership and confidentiality of data. Access and other data entitlements should be addressed at the outset, as part of the conditions of procurement.

✅ P3 procurement should be negotiated such that costs are balanced with the risk transfer to the private sector so that municipalities are paying an appropriate premium to protect against higher costs. P3 contracts that clearly define and control the levels of quality and service required of private-sector partners paired with penalty clauses and right to terminate the contract can ensure service quality and transparency. Accountability can also be enhanced through public reporting of performance measures and a structure of the mechanisms for complaints and redress for the public.

✅ Deciding between high-tech and low-tech solutions will depend on several factors: - What is the use case? Real-time fill sensors will require the speed and accuracy that “smarter” sensor technologies offer. - Cost - low-tech solutions tend to be cheaper to acquire and maintain. Solutions that make use of existing infrastructure will also have lower costs. Use of low-power wide area networks (LPWANs) for waste collection also have lower costs with high penetration. - Monthly subscriptions for IoT devices from vendors may overcome upfront cost barriers. - Scalability – Assess bid submissions on the risks of scalability and flexibility to deal with structured and unstructured data. Some considerations include use of consortium models for incremental expansions and non-relational databases.