One of the challenges in Smart City projects is the planning and executing a comprehensive waste management programme into connecting the various sectors like residential buildings, commercial & industrial establishments, hotels, healthcare institutes, transport sector, public places, tourism spots and many others. Smart City consultants play a major role in evaluating and formulating a waste management strategy that can be incorporated in the development plan of a smart city. The challenges are less in Green field projects.
Gaia Smart Cities Solution Private Limited, the Project Management Consultant (PMC) for Agra Smart City has envisioned and proposed a definite end to end solution for waste management.
Municipal Corporation is responsible for collection, segregation, transportation, dumping and processing of the city waste from door to door.
As a process, waste is transferred from primary collection vehicles into secondary collection vehicles for dumping at Waste Processing plant. Municipal Corporation either directly or through sub-contracting has field staff responsible for collection of door to door waste, street sweeping and collection of street waste and dumping to the nearest bins.
In current scenario, managing people who are responsible for the activity and proper utilization of assets / resources assigned to them has become a complex job for Municipal Corporation which is directly or indirectly impacting the cleanliness and hygiene factors to citizens. Some of the serious problems in existing solid waste process are:
1) Lack of information about collection with respect to time and area.
2) Lack of proper system for monitoring, tracking the collection and transportation vehicles
3) Verification of employee attendance and performance
4) On transfer of waste from primary collection to secondary collection, authenticity of vehicle transfer and improper co-ordination leads to missed trips and garbage piling.
5) Lack of quick response to urgent cases like vehicle accident, breakdown, long time idling, etc.
The proposed systems for keeping the city clean and waste free
In current scenario with respect to Solid Waste Management, there is a large scope for the engagement of Technology Partners and System Integrators (SI) to engage with Solid Waste Department of Municipal Corporation to setup right systems in place which help corporation with proper planning, monitoring, controlling and measure through a survey of hygiene, cleanliness and livability index.
The Agra Smart City got selected in the third round of 100 Smart Cities Mission. The tender document published for Master System Integrator concentrates on ICT Enablers for PAN City. A city has a vision to bring awareness among citizens of Agra and with stringent monitoring systems on cleanliness and Hygiene factor across all the wards in the city, Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) formed for Agra Smart City emphasized to provide a more robust, transparent and comprehensive mechanism with a lot more IT and ICT enablers.
The proposed solution intends to implement a RFID / QR Code based and GPS enabled Solid Waste Management System practices within the existing landscape. The existing vehicles deployed for collection of solid waste will be fitted with GPS devices for vehicle tracking. RFID readers/Smart Phones to read the RFID/ QR Code installed on community bins. RFID tags / QR Code will be installed at each house and commercial establishment in the city and all the field staff collecting the solid waste will be provided with GPRS Based RFID readers/Smart phones. Handheld devices like GPRS based RFID Reader/Smart Phones or POS Device will be deployed to manage the workforce deployed for solid waste collection.
The field staff collecting the solid waste should capture evidence of pickup and notify the user on Mobile App/SMS and the end customer should be able to track daily/monthly collection status/ report thorough Mobile App. It should also be possible for the end customer to request for the collection report though a missed call or SMS on a predefined number.
Waste management and other cleaning systems are important in the Smart City agenda
Components of waste management is not just with respect to waste collected from household, commercial establishments etc. Waste is more of a serious concern which impacts the health and sanitation factor of every citizens of city. Cleanliness is directly related to wastage and sanitation both. So it is not just the Smart cities which have become the enablers for Solid Waste Management but several other schemes like Swachh Bharat Mission have also played a vital and significant role in bringing public awareness on health factor related to waste.
Along with the physical process of complete solid waste management activity and on-premise availability of an operators at various Public and community toilets to manage the cleanliness and hygiene factor with proper amenities in place, various IoT components have enable a governance at City Level by respective departments. A simple mechanism of Feedback Sensors which have capability to share the public sentiments and report the issue to the governing authority helps them to act upon and take necessary action. Through the medium of Swachh Bharat Mission and under the guidelines of Swachh Sarveksahan, this monitoring of the amenities for citizens has been taken care and such feedback devices are being deployed by all Municipal Corporations through private organizations like Gaia Smart Feedback which are in action to build various ICT enablers providing social and economic benefits.
The vision is to create sustainable economy policy in several tier 2 cities which have ability to cater to millions of tourists every year. Several of this municipal corporations have budgeted to improve on the recycling of solid waste management products like plastic bottles, wrappers etc. which are highly consumed at these locations. The business model for such technology which help in regeneration from waste is being catered through Public-Private-Partnership Model and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSF) funding scheme which even excite the user to participate against the benefits of saving the environment.
As low-tech recycling programs reach the limits of what they can do, technology could further reduce the volume of unrecycled solid waste. Digital tracking and payment for waste disposal, for instance, charge users for exactly for the amount and type of trash they throw away. But this type of application should be considered alongside other policy initiatives, particularly in developing economies where household budgets are tight, and a great deal of informal recycling already takes place.
