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
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
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.
Surat’s Smart Underground Garbage System
The Silk city generates about 2,100 tonnes of garbage per day, of which 800 tonnes is processed and treated. The civic body has deployed 425 vehicles on 900 routes for door-todoor collection of waste, each of which is equipped with Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags and GPS for real-time tracking and to prevent leakage of waste.
For the waste generated through sweeping, night brushing activities and some commercial areas there are about 1100 containers throughout the city. Everyday filled containers are replaced by empty containers.
Unlike many leading metros that continue to grapple with issues of overflowing public dump yards, exhausted landfills and foul air, the diamond city has installed 43 underground garbage bins to manage its waste. Surat Municipal Corporation has installed theses bins under Smart City Mission.
The bins are also equipped with sensors to alert the control room as soon as 70% of the container is full and have been installed on footpaths. Each of them has two openings or inlets. One is for individuals to throw waste, another is for the municipal carts that bring collected waste. These humongous metal bins are being lifted with the assistance of cranes, thus emptying the entire waste mechanically, without any direct human involvement. All the bins are equipped with two compartments – one for the general public to discard their litter and the other one for municipal workers who collect waste from that area. To ensure efficient waste segregation, the bins are further divided into dry and wet waste. The size of the underground dustbin is 3 cubic meters and each bin can hold up to 1.5 tonnes of garbage. Cities like Mumbai and Chennai are currently in their respective planning stages. Other small cities which have a similar technology include Dharamshala, Panchkula and Dehradun.
Besides the monetary benefits, the bins are also solving other issues related to cleanliness. The automatic bin lifting, emptying and washing of underground dustbins ensures that no garbage is spills out while transferring the waste and the bins can be reused. The problem of overflowing is also resolved in the areas where these bins have been kept.
Moreover, the bins are helping to put an end to bad odour from dirty smelly bins and stray animals feeding on waste. As there is minimal human effort required, the workers don’t come in contact with the garbage thus giving them a clean working environment.
In last three years, total solid waste collection is increased from 1200 TPD to 1600 TPD. Door to door waste collection coverage is increased from 80% to 100% resulting in better livability conditions. Municipal Solid Waste collected through primary collection system reaches to the semi-closed body transfer station of the respective zone from where it is transported to the final disposal site through compacter in a close body container. Centralized Bio- Medical Waste treatment facility is being operated currently. Apart from this, night scraping & brushing activity of all major roads and Hotel kitchen waste management & disposal is also practiced. Cost recovery through user charges is 100% for SWM.
With regards to wastewater, the city treats 57 million litres of sewage every day and converts it into 40 million litres of potable water. This water is then supplied to the Pandesara industrial estate which houses several dyeing and printing mills.
Smart Bins in Smart Cities
• The “smart bin” communicates information on fill levels and ensures collection only when the bin is full.
• Fewer collection visits reduce congestion and traffic interruption, resulting also in cleaner and safer streets.
• Traffic reduction due to fewer collection visits helps reduce carbon dioxide and other emissions.
• The “smart bins” are standardized so that they can be emptied with existing equipment.
From a citizen’s perspective, the social benefits of “smart bins” – besides their economic and environmental advantages – are interesting. They help to:
• raise public awareness of utilizing renewable energy
• improve street sanitation
• encourage recycling
• collect and analyze area-specific data on waste volumes for better planning
• increase WiFi coverage with their function as a free public WiFi hotspot
IoT-enabled Solid Waste Management solution to address the collection and transportation of Solid Waste. It involves retrofitting existing garbage bins by adding connected sensors to make them “smart bins”. These sensors detect the level and weight of the garbage and transmit this information to a server deployed in the city’s Data Center through existing cellular infrastructure. These ruggedized sensors ensure that they can withstand extreme weather conditions and have a long battery life of at least two to three years.
Tracking of the truck through geo-fencing and periodic alerts for various incidents helps the Municipal body to monitor the performance of the workers and contractors to assigned to this task. Daily, weekly and monthly reports about different aspects of the collection process help the Sanitation department head to assess and make improvements.
While equipping the bins of private households with latest sensor technology is tested only by a few cities (like Santander in Spain or Montreal in Canada), several cities start in public spaces with implementing smart waste management solutions.
The installation of smart solar-powered compacting bins can be observed in a growing number of cities (Amsterdam, Atlanta, London, Melbourne, Philadelphia, and others).
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Pune Municipal Corporation is using the technologies like GPS Tracking System, Ultra High Frequency Radio Frequency Identification, IOT Sensors along with mobile and web application to improve and smoothen ground level mechanisms for waste collection and efficient processing and re-cycling of waste.
Automated waste collection system provides long term solution and can take care the conventional methods like door-to-door, crub-side, community bins collections and transportation via sloping channel system.
Multipurpose Smart Street Bin describes the scope of work of “Smart Bins” in managing the waste collection system for an entire city. The network of sensors enabled smart bins connected through the cellular network generates a large amount of data, which is further analyzed and visualized at real time to gain insights about the status of waste around the city. The scope for the future work of this system can be implemented on various places like Bus stop, Railway stations etc. As shown in below figure it will display the Backside street information sticker, there will be a facilities like Wi-Fi Hotspot, CCTV, LED Signboard and the BioEnable Smartbin sensor inside the dustbin. Below are the listed features applicable for the Multipurpose Smart Street Bin:
• Smart Bins with sensors
• LED Display System for public information
• Street Information Boards
• Wi-Fi Hotspot
• CCTV Camera
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