In an exclusive interaction with Dataquest, R. Venkateswaran, Senior VP IoT, Persistent Systems, talks about solid Waste management and how IoT enabled Smart Cities can help tackle this problem of Solid Waste Management in India. He also talks about the challenges in the implementation of smart solid Waste Management systems. Excerpts:
Q. Where do you think the current problem of solid waste management lies?
A comprehensive solution to Solid Waste Management (SWM) spans across five key areas in the SWM lifecycle, namely, Generation, Collection, Transportation, Treatment and Disposal. Today, in India, we have challenges across each of these areas that need to be overcome to create a viable Solid Waste Management solution.
Some of the challenges include segregation of waste at the time of generation, shortage of sufficient manpower and garbage vans for collection, tracking and monitoring of waste transportation to enable cross-verification and transparency, proper treatment of bio-degradable and recyclable material and lastly, environmentally safe and hygienic waste disposal mechanism.
With a 48% growth in urban population in India from 29 crores in 2000 to 43 crores in 2015, there has been a corresponding significant increase in the amount of waste generated (approximately 2.5 times or 150%). Further, the segregation of waste (for example, “dry” vs “wet” garbage) has not been consistently effective due to lack of awareness and inability to enforce segregation.
Shortage of manpower and garbage vans is also a key challenge for collection and transportation. Municipal bodies typically outsource this activity to contractors but do not have the necessary systems in place to effectively track and monitor the services rendered by these contractors. Citizens add to this challenge of effective collection by disposing off their garbage outside the designated bins. Waste processing and treatment has a strong dependence on segregation of waste into multiple categories (bio-degradable, recycling, bio-hazard etc.). The final disposal of waste is also a big challenge given the lack of planning of land-fill sites. Originally, these sites were ear-marked away from the cities to minimize harmful effects to inhabitants. However, with the expansion of cities, these sites now fall within city perimeters, thereby, exposing the residents to health hazards and other environmental issues.
Q. How can an IoT enabled Smart City to help tackle the problem of Solid Waste Management in India?
Deploying IoT and related technologies can address some of the predominant challenges in solid waste management very effectively.
IoT-enabled waste collection and transportation can bring in significant advantages in the overall implementation of waste management solutions. Specifically, the municipal corporations that have outsourced this work to independent contractors, can use IoT technologies to track and monitor the contractors’ effectiveness. Deployment of smart bins, tracking of garbage pickup trucks as well as the sanitation workers, route optimization for trucks, cross-checking of garbage weight etc. can efficiently address the challenges of enforcement and transparency. Similarly, IoT-enabled sensors can also monitor the amount of alternate fuel generated from the processed waste. This helps the cities address some of their fuel needs and leverage the benefits of the Solid Waste Management solutions.
In the long run, IoT-enabled solutions can also help in segregating waste at the time of waste generation, thereby bringing in significant value to the rest of the lifecycle stages.
Persistent Systems has developed an 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”.
