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IOT based smart garbage alert system using Arduino UNO

Conference Paper · November 2016

DOI: 10.1109/TENCON.2016.7848162

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 IOT Based Smart Garbage alert system using Arduino UNO

Dr.N.SATHISH KUMAR#1, B.VIJAYALAKSHMI#2, R. JENIFER PRARTHANA#3, A .SHANKAR#4

Professor, Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College#1, Coimbatore, TamilNadu, India
Assistant Professor, Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College#2,#3, Coimbatore, TamilNadu, India
Student, Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College#4, Coimbatore, TamilNadu, India
E-mail:hod-ece@srec.ac.in#1,vijayalakshmi.b@srec.ac.in#2, jenifer.r@srec.ac.in#3

Abstract: Waste management is one of the primary I. INTRODUCTION

problem that the world faces irrespective of the case
of developed or developing country. The key issue in
the waste management is that the garbage bin at
public places gets overflowed well in advance before
the commencement of the next cleaning process. It
in turn leads to various hazards such as bad odor &
ugliness to that place which may be the root cause
for spread of various diseases. To avoid all such
hazardous scenario and maintain public cleanliness
and health this work is mounted on a smart garbage
system. The main theme of the work is to develop a
smart intelligent garbage alert system for a proper
garbage management .This paper proposes a smart
alert system for garbage clearance by giving an alert
signal to the municipal web server for instant
cleaning of dustbin with proper verification based
on level of garbage filling. This process is aided by
the ultrasonic sensor which is interfaced with
Arduino UNO to check the level of garbage filled in
the dustbin and sends the alert to the municipal web
server once if garbage is filled . After cleaning the
dustbin, the driver confirms the task of emptying
the garbage with the aid of RFID Tag. RFID is a
computing technology that is used for verification
process and in addition, it also enhances the smart
garbage alert system by providing automatic
identification of garbage filled in the dustbin and
sends the status of clean-up to the server affirming
that the work is done. The whole process is upheld
by an embedded module integrated with RF ID and
IOT Facilitation. The real time status of how waste
collection is being done could be monitored and
followed up by the municipality authority with the
aid of this system. In addition to this the necessary
remedial / alternate measures could be adapted. An
Android application is developed and linked to a
web server to intimate the alerts from the
microcontroller to the urban office and to perform
the remote monitoring of the cleaning process, done
by the workers, thereby reducing the manual
process of monitoring and verification. The
notifications are sent to the Android application
using Wi-Fi module.
Keywords ----- RFID, MSL, e-Monitoring, Arduino
UNO, Wi-Fi, Ultrasonic Sensor.
The ultimate need of the hour for a developing
nation is the key for “Smart City”. The influential
ecological factors that poses to be a threat to this may
include: hazardous pollution and its subsequent effects
on health of humanity, alarming global warming and
depletion of ozone layer etc. Mostly Environmental
pollution may be owing to the Municipal Solid Left-
overs (MSL) [2]. A Proper maintenance becomes
mandatory for an efficient and effective removal of the
generated Municipal Solid Leftover [8]. It is perceived
that often the waste space gets too much occupied due
to irregular removal of garbage occupancy in the
dustbin. This exposition proposes an e-monitoring
system that putforths an embedded system and web
based software assimilated with RFID and IoT
technology. Using the anticipated system, monitoring of
the waste collection status could be monitored
effectively. This design designates a technique in which
the garbage level could be checked at regular intervals
which would prevent the undesirable overflow of the
bin. In addition to this it also has facilitation sto
intimate the authority to clean up in case of any
overflows. The filling level of the garbage in the
dustbin and its original level height could be sensed/
monitored by the ultrasonic sensor. Programming in the
Arduino UNO is done in such a way that once a
particular level of filling is sensed information message
is sent requesting a clean-up.
The practice of pervasive computing
technology namely Radio Frequency Identification
(RFID), and sensor networks offer a brand new channel
to optimize the waste management systems in a better
circumstances. In this contemporary era the mounting
utility of the radio-frequency identification (RFID)
technology in many application domains, such as
logistic, inventory, public transportation and security
could be witnessed in a great extent. Essentially, RFID
provides a grand way to read digital information from
one or several objects with the aid of a reader at
proximity of the objects. This in turn enables automatic
identification, tracking, checking of properties, etc [1].
It is centred that RFID could possibly replace barcode
and might be attached to a large stock of products by
makers and vendors.

978-1-5090-2597-8/16/$31.00 2016
c IEEE 1028
 III. EMBEDDED SYSTEM

II. E-MONITORING SYSTEM It comprises of an RFID reader, a micro-

controller, a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and a GPRS
With seemingly increase in the population rate segment. Figure 3 illustrates the functional block
of the developing nations, a proper management of diagram of the overall embedded system.
accumulative Municipal Solid Leftover (MSL) grows to
be alarmingly increasing for building and maintaining
an eco-friendly hazardless space [6]. In the traditional
approach whenever a garbage overload is found
manually a truck comes to clear the over dumped
wastage. But it is not occasionally monitored. It is very
important to periodically monitor the trucks and record
the information that has relevance to the collecting time
and area from a central location to ensure that the job is
done right. This paper harvests the tremendous power
of RFID technology and presents the development of an
electronic monitoring (e-monitoring) system to
overcome the above problem in the conventional
approach. The proposed e-monitoring system is an
Figure 3 Functional block diagram of the
embedded system that comprises of RFID technology
Embedded System
interfaced with Arduino micro-controller and a web
base which is completely computerized. By employing IV. WEB BASED SOFTWARE SYSTEM
the proposed system, the municipal authority could
monitor the waste collection status effectively.
The e-monitoring system has two parts: It comprises of a GPRS module, a Central
• Embedded system Server, a Database Server and a Web server. The
Figure 4 reveals the block diagram of the web centred
• Web based software system Interface
software system.
The overall flow diagram of the proposed model is
shown in Figure 2

Figure 4. Block diagram of web based system

The central theme of this work is to develop an

intellectual monitoring system for proper management
of MSL. With the objective in anterior a micro-
controller based embedded system integrated with
RFID and GPRS technology is developed in this work.
Since it is a micro-controller based embedded system, it
is transportable and is of low price tag too. A
municipal authority can custom this type of system and
monitor the waste collection status in real time based on
the recorded information. In addition to this they can
prepare different reports and measure the performance
of the team and thereby increase their productivity. The
system also has provisioning in which there are options
available for the customers to lodge their complaints in
case of discrepancies. This facilitation do bestows an
opportunity to overcome the hindrances and maintain
the solution in a seemingly sensible way.
Figure 2 Flowchart of the system

2016 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON) — Proceedings of the International Conference 1029
 V. SMART DUSTBIN
A. NECESSITY FOR A SMART DUSTBIN

Improper waste management easily paves

route for air pollution and soil contamination which in
turn poses adverse effect to health of mankind and in
addition to environmental deteriorations. A Survey
made by a top magazine in India have apparently
proven that Garbage Accumulation is the prime reason
behind the hazardous air pollution in Guwahati, an
Assamese Township. This pollution in the above told
township was the reason behind the serious health
issues like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
(COPD) and Asthma that was being faced by the people
who have their livelihood over there. The failure of
removal of accumulated garbage is the sole reason for Figure 5.B.1 Dustbin before compression
breeding of mosquitoes and houseflies which is the root
cause behind various deadly diseases like malaria, The dustbin’s opening is enclosed by a lid that
dengue, chikun guniya etc. A city with poor sanitation is attached to the internal lateral surface as depicted in
and malodorous environment can never be a healthy Figure5.B.2. By this when the compressor reaches the
place to live in. Nearly 235 million people currently maximum level for compression, the inlet lid gets
suffer from breathing illness due to the inhalation of air blocked in such a way that no garbage from exteriors
with foul smell. Almost 90% of COPD sufferers’ are could be dumped inside the dustbin [7].
from low and middle income countries. A health
magazine have issued a survey result that
approximately three million people died of COPD in
2005. Inopportune managing of garbage is recognized
to be the sole reason for over 22 human diseases that
causes premature death every year [3]. Enactment of
this smart dustbin could possibly avert the mounting of
the garbage for an elongated period of time which
would prevent the widespread of diseases to a great
extent and it do affirms a clean environment in the city.

B. DESIGN OF DUSTBIN

A solitary guiding cylindrical part is deferred

adjacent to the lid of dustbin. The piston is at liberty for
any movement in upwards downwards and in vertical
interiors to a predefined level. In order to compress the
garbage a plate is attached to the cylinder [4]. The
silhouette of this plate is decided by the shape of the
litterbins. The leaf switch could be suspended upside
down via a side hole that is available in the
compressing plate. The leaf switch’s level is placed at a
spot which is lower to the maximum level. By this the
compressing plate could reach down so that the switch
gets pressed and the junk can be dumped in the dustbin
to a definite degree than it is expected to be. The
maiden part of the dustbin is placed at a spot which is
comparatively little higher than that of the threshold
level as in Figure 5.B.1
1030 2016 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON) — Proceedings of the International Conference
Figure 5.B.2 Dustbin during compression
Precautionary measure is taken in such a way
that the garbage must never damage or block the leaf
switch’s functionality even at any extreme scenarios.
The trashcans are made up of materials that has the
capability to exhibit anti corrosive properties.
VI. ARDUINO UNO
The Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board
grounded on the ATmega328 (datasheet). It comprises
of 14 digital input/output pins (out of which 6 can be
utilized as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz
ceramic resonator, a facilitation for USB connectivity, a
power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button. Its
designs comprises of assistances that supports the
microcontroller in every possible way. In order to get to
work with it one has to simply connect it to a computer
with a USB cable or power it with an AC-to-DC
adapter or battery.
It is accessible in two different versions
namely Arduino Uno and Genuino Uno which could be
visualized in Figure 6. The variations is observed with
reference to the region. The Uno is unique from all its
former boards in the way that it does not makes use of
the FTDI USB-to-serial driver chip.
VIII.
The word "Uno" refers to one in Italian and it
is named so to mark the forthcoming release of Arduino
1.0. The Uno and version 1.0 are the reference versions
of Arduino in the forward journey. The Uno is the latest
in a series of USB Arduino boards, and the reference
model for the Arduino platform.
VII. ULTRASONIC SENSOR HC - SR04
A. WORKING PRINCIPLE
Ultrasonic ranging module HC - SR04 offers
a 2cm - 400cm non-contact measurement function, the
ranging accuracy could reach up to 3mm. The building
modules includes ultrasonic transmitters, receiver and
control circuit. The basic principle:
(1) Making use of IO trigger for at least 10us
high level signal,
(2) The Unit inevitably sends eight 40 kHz and
detects whether there is any pulse signal back.
(3) If any of a signal is received back in a high
level, time of high output IO duration is the
time from sending ultrasonic signal and
receiving it back.
Test distance = (high level time× velocity of
sound (340M/S) / 2
B. OPERATION
Figure 7.B Working principle of ultrasonic sensor
2016 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON) — Proceedings of the International Conference
Here electrical energy is transformed into
sound to send the pulse. The sound that is received back
is converted into electricity. Thus the time lag between
the sent and received sound signal is used to estimate
the distance to the object. Spacing between sensors is
dogged by their beam angles. The sensors must be
spaced so that they do not interfere with each other.
This interference is sometimes referred to as
“crosstalk”. The target should be mounted
perpendicular to the axis of the sensor.
RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION
(RFID)
RFID is an ellipsis for radio frequency
identification. In brief RF stands for “radiofrequency”
and ID owes to “identifier”; which allows an item, for
instance a library book, to be identified, accessed,
stored, reprogrammed and communicated by the aid of
radio waves.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a
generic term that refers to the non-contacting
technologies that makes use of radio waves to
spontaneously identify people or objects. Several
methods of identification are available, but the most
common technique is to store an identical serial
number that recognizes a person or object on a
microchip that is committed to an antenna. The
combination of antenna and microchip are combinedly
referred to as "RFID transponder" or "RFID tag" and it
work in combination with the "RFID reader".
An RFID system comprises of a reader and
one or multiple tags. The radio frequency (RF) energy
is transmitted with the aid of Reader’s Antenna. The tag
will then modulate the electromagnetic waves generated
by the reader will be then modulated by the tag in order
to revert back to compiled data to the reader. The
modulated waves that have got converted into a digital
data will be received by the reader.
A. RFID TAG
RFID tag is a tiny device that stores and
forwards the data to RFID reader. They are
characterized in two types – active tag and passive
tag. Active tags are contains an inherent internal battery
and do not demands power from the reader.
Stereotypically active tags have a longer distance range
than passive tags. Passive tags are slighter and lighter in
dimensions than that of the active tags. They do not
contain an inbuilt battery and thus they look upon RFID
reader for its operating power and undoubtedly have a
lower range limited up to few meters.
B. RFID READER
The radio frequency gets transmitted by the
reader when powered ON. When the tag is positioned
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close to the reader, the RFID tag will collect the radio
frequency via the antenna placed inside the tag
exclusively. The radio frequency received will be
converted into electrical power that is enough for the
tag to transmit the data back to the RFID reader. In
addition to this, the reader will transmit the tag ID to
the external device by a serial communication. A wide
range of reader modules are readily available now. The
most communal and easy way to use reader is EM-18.
This module read the RFID passive tag and shifts the
tag ID to the Arduino microcontroller.
C. WORKING
The microchip rations the unique ID and
integrates the logic circuitry required for functioning of
the tag. It has an internal EEPROM in order to keep in
trace of the unique ID.
The antenna receives power and RF signals from
the RFID reader and forwards those signals to the chip.
The chip receives those signals, computes them and
reverts back the data to RFID reader.
To recognize the identity of an RFID tag,
RFID reader sends radio signals which is captured by
the coil (working as antenna) for the tag. The coil
receives these signals as alternating current and passes
to the chip. The chip extracts both the power and the
information from this alternating current. By
communicating with the non-volatile memory of the
chip that stores unique id as well as other information,
it sends back the required signal to the antenna which is
then transmitted to the RFID reader [5].
Figure 8.C.1Working of RFID tag
Further, the reader will transmit the tag ID to
the external device by serial communication. A wide
range of reader modules are now available. The most
common and easy to use reader is EM-18. This module
read the RFID passive tag and sends the tag ID to the
1032 2016 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON) — Proceedings of the International Conference
Arduino microcontroller. The block diagram of RFID
Tag is shown in the Figure 8.C.1
RFID readers and tags need to be tuned in to a
same frequency for communication. RFID system uses
various frequencies but most common and popularly
used frequency is low, high and ultra- high frequency.
Low frequency is around 125 KHz, high is around
13.56 MHz and ultra- high varies between (860-960)
MHz. Some applications also make use of microwave
frequency of 2.45 GHz. It is imperative to choose right
frequency for an application as radio waves work
different at various frequencies.
The EM-18 RFID Reader module generates
and radiates RF Carrier Signals of frequency 125KHz
through its coils. When a 125KHz Passive RFID Tag
(have no battery) is brought in to this field, will get
energized from it. These RFID Tags are usually made
using a CMOS IC EM4102.
IX. SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
The system is designed in such a way that it
avoids the overflow of the dustbin by sending alerts to
the borough with help of a microcontroller linked with
a web server using IoT. It also provides the
verification process after cleaning the dustbin.
The level of the dustbin is calculated by
measuring the distance of the nearest obstacle using an
ultrasonic sensor. Arduino UNO R3 is used as the
microcontroller to read the data from the ultrasonic
sensor. It is programmed to send an alert to the Thing
Speak web server once the garbage reaches a certain
distance. An RFID reader is interfaced with the
Arduino for the verification process. Whenever an
RFID tag (ID card of the cleaner) interrupts the RFID
reader, the ultrasonic sensor checks the status of the
dustbin and sends it to the web server. An android
application is used to view the alerts and status at the
server end. The overall block diagram is shown in the
fig.9
RFID Ultrasonic Web Andr
tag sensor Server oid
App
RFID Arduino ESP8266
reader UNO R3 Wi-Fi
Power
Supply
Figure 9. Block Diagram of Garbage Alert
System(arrows missing)
 X. RESULTS AND OUTPUT
A. ARDUINO IDE OUTPUT
The Arduino is programmed based on the 4
levels set in the dustbin:
ƒ Level 1 (>75 cm) – Cleaned
ƒ Level 2 (50 cm to 75 cm) –
(25 -50)%
ƒ Level 3 (25 cm to 50 cm) –
Above 50%
ƒ Level 4 (<25 cm) – Send
Alert
The output window of the serial monitor showing the
alerts is given in the Figure
10.A.1.

Figure 10.A.2 Output for Status

B. ANDROID APP OUTPUT

The home screen of the android application is
shown in the figure 10.B.1. It consists of an optimized
user interface for the easier access. There are two
buttons for the monitoring process. Each button has a
specific operation. “Alerts” button is used to view the
information of the alerts from the dustbin and the
“Status” button is used for the verification process.

Figure 10.A.1 Output for Alerts

The Interrupt from the RFID Tag causes

rechecking of the level and it displays the status of
cleaning done by the cleaner
ƒ (>75 cm) – Cleaned
ƒ (<25 cm) – Not Cleaned
The output window of the serial monitor
displaying the status is given in the Figure
10.A.2.
Figure 10.B.1. Homepage of the App

Tapping the “Alerts” button will land the user

to the alerts page as shown in the figure 10.B.2. It
displays a chart which shows the level of the dustbin
received from the Arduino. Value 10 denotes that the
dustbin is “Filled” and the value 2 denotes that the
dustbin is “Cleaned”.

2016 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON) — Proceedings of the International Conference 1033
 XII.
Figure 10.B.2 Alerts page of the App
Tapping the “Status” button will redirect to the status
page as shown in the figure 10.B.3.
Figure 10.B.3 Status page of the App
The chart on this screen shows the status of the
dustbin after cleaning at the time of interruption caused
by the RFID Tag. Value 10 denotes that the dustbin is
“Not Cleaned” and the value 2 denotes that the dustbin
is “Cleaned”.
XI. CONCLUSION
An embedded based intelligent alert
system is devised for the proper monitoring and
maintenance of the garbage. This system averts the
irregular cleaning of the dustbins by sending alerts to
the concerned individual at regular intervals. It further
improves the system by additionally endorsing the
status of cleaning in real time and measure the
performance of the team. Thus this system comes in
handy as an admirable solution in environmental
maintenance. In addition to this it also aids to diminish
the need for high human intervention in garbage
maintenance of the municipality and pollution
monitoring system.
1034 2016 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON) — Proceedings of the International Conference
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“RFID-A Guide to Radio Frequency
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[2] Flora, A. (2009). “Towards a clean
environment: A proposal on sustainable and
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Alam Flora.
[3] Gogoi.L (2012). “Solid Waste Disposal and its
Health Implications in Guwahati City: A Study in
Medical Geography", Lambert Academic
Publishing, Germany, ISBN 978-3-8454-0149-2.
[4] Hannan, M., A., Arebey, M., Basri, H. (2010).
“Intelligent Solid Waste Bin monitoring and
Management System”, Australian Journal of Basic
and Applied Sciences, 4(10): 5314-5319, 2010,
ISSN 1991-8178.
[5] Md. Liakot Ali, Mahbubul Alam, Md. Abu
Nayeem Redwanur Rahaman, (2012). “RFID based
E-monitoring System for Municipal Solid Waste
Management”, International Conference on
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[6] Rahman, H., Al-Muyeed, A. (2010). “Solid and
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[7] Twinkle Sinha, K.Mugesh Kumar, P.Saisharan,
(2015). “SMART DUSTBIN”, International
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[8] Visvanathan, C., Ulrich, G., (2006). “Domestic
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– A Comparative Analysis”, 3 R South Asia Expert
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very old New latest reference may be added after
year 2014)