Smart Bin (Waste Segregation and Optimisation)
Wesley Pereira1, Saurabh Parulekar2, Sopan Phaltankar3, Vijaya Kamble4
1,2,3,4
Sardar Patel Institute of Technology, Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan’s campus Munshi Nagar, Andheri-West Mumbai-400058
1
wesley.pereira@spit.ac.in, 2saurabh.parulekar@spit.ac.in, 3sopan.phaltankar@spit.ac.in, 4vijaya kamble@spit.ac.in
Abstract: Smart bin has multiple features and its main
feature is garbage segregation. Smart bin will have 4
different compartments for the waste: for plastic waste, for
wet waste, for dry waste and lastly for the wastewater from
the auto clean feature. Apart from this, it will also have
ultrasound sensors for the bin to open when a person
approaches the dustbin to throw garbage thus making it
hands-free and evidently more hygienic. The smart bin will
also have an analysis done to tell the user the amount and
type of garbage they dispose of. Daily, weekly and monthly
garbage disposal will be analyzed through graphs and data
through live data reception. The bin will alsohave a reminder
sent to the phone from the app connected tothe bin to tell us
that it is time to throw the garbage. This idea will help us
dispose of the wastes separately and thus also be able to
distinguish the recyclable and non-recyclable waste. The
smart bin is an efficient and hygienic waste disposal and
segregation system which will eventually help in
wasteoptimization.
Keywords: Segregation, Optimization, Smart, App, IOT,
Sanitation, Recycle, Capacitive, Automation
I. INTRODUCTION
The total amount of waste that was dumped globally in the
year 2007 was a whopping 2.12 billion tonnes increasing by
100 million tonnes from 2006 [1]. The segregation of the waste
followed by the transportation and disposal of the waste needs
to be very precise and managed properly so as
toavoidtherisktothehealthandsafetyofthepublic.Waste
segregation is an absolutely necessary stage in waste man-
agement. Most of the waste is sent directly to the landfills
without proper sorting and this has caused a huge loss for us.
Properly distinguishing wet, dry and plastic waste lets us
recycle it more efficiently and saves us a lot of money
andresources.
With the advent of the plastic ban and people having so many
plastics in their households, SMART BIN can help dispose of
the waste properly and efficiently without any problems. Also,
the wet waste can be used as compost and some of the dry
waste can be recycled.
SMART BIN identifies the type of waste and segregates it
using the techniques mentioned. This segregation by a machine
thus brings an end to the segregation done by hu- mans, which
is again a filthy job as no human should touch such toxic and
978-1-5386-9346-9/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
dirty waste thrown by us and alsosometimes
thissegregationprocessisntveryprecise.Thesmartbinalso
tellsuswhenthedustbiniscompletelyfullandthusitistime to take
out the garbage. Smart Bin will also have an auto- matic door
at the top of the bin which opens when a person comes to
dispose of any waste thus solving the challengeof sanitation.
Another important issue we face is we do not actuallyac- count
for what kind of garbage we throw. The smart bin gives us a
weekly analysis through the app connected tothe bin about the
type of garbagethrown.
Along with this, the smart bin will also provide solutions to
what kind of garbage can be used as compost or which
garbagecanberecycledorreused.Thissolvestheimportant issue of
not wastingresources.
So The Smart Binmainly focuses and helps in getting us a step
closer to achieving the 3 Rs Reduce, Reuseand Recycle.
II. OBJECTIVES
The main objectives of SMART BIN are:
Waste Segregation
Smart bin segregates the waste into 3 types: dry, wet and
plastic.
Sanitation
Automation of the door ensures that the user will not have to
touch the bin.
Waste identification
The waste can be identified by its capacitive values and re-
flective properties.
Re-usability
The waste that can be used again can be identified and reused.
Recycling
The waste that can be recycled will be identified by theseg-
regator through its capacitive value and thus sending that value
to the app which will tell the user if that waste can be recycled
or not based on some pre-givendata.
Waste Prediction and Optimization
Through the network of the smart bin data sent to thecloud, we
can establish a pattern of the kind and type of waste
throwninaparticularlocalityandthussendthegarbagedis- posal
vehicles in the most optimized path, saving a lot of fuel
andresources.
III. SYSTEM DESIGN
Fig. 1. Block Diagram
IR Sensors:
TheIRsensorsemitInfraredLightWhichiseitherabsorbed by the
material (Waste) or Reflected. The Sensor also con- sistsofanI
RreceiverwhichmeasuresthereflectedInfrared Light.
20receiver is connected to the ADC module of
theMicrocontrollerwhichconvertstheanalogsignaltodig-
signal which is analyzed and used to determine the type of
waste. The IR sensor is also used as a proximity sensor for
detecting whether the segregation chamber is filled or not.
Capacitive Plates:
The plates are copper clads of specific dimensions which are
connected directly to the ADC module of the microcon- troller.
Bluetooth Module:
The Bluetooth module used is HC-05 which is connectedto the
serial port of the microcontroller to transmit collected data to a
mobile device for analysis andprediction.
Servo Motor:
Servo motor consists of a gearbox and a potentiometer due to
which we can control the precise position of the shaft and hold
it there. It only uses one control signal for controlling the
movement of the shaft which is restricted to a rotation of 0 to
180.
Ultrasonic Sensor:
Using Ultrasound transceiver distance is calculated for de-
termining whether somebody is approaching the dustbin. If a
person is close enough to the dustbin a trigger is given to the
microcontroller which triggers the dustbin lid to open.
Stepper Driver and Stepper Motor:
Stepper driver is used to drive the stepper motor using the
microcontroller. The waste chamber is mounted on the step-
per motor which aligns the respective sections (Dry, Wet and
Plastic) under the capacitive plates.
Indication LEDs:
These LEDs are directly controlled by the microcontroller for
displaying the status of the system. For indicating bin is full,
Bluetooth Status indicator, for indicating the type of waste.
IV. DESIGN REQUIREMENTS
V. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
Atmega328P Microcontroller:
The Atmega 32 8P microcontroller is a high performance, low
power 8-bit microcontroller with enhanced RISC ar-
chitecture. It is a 28 pin IC with 23 general purpose I/O lines,
32 general purpose working registers, Real Time Counter
(RTC), three flexible Timer/Counters with compare modes and
PWM, 1 serial programmable USART and an 8-channel and a
6-channel 10-bit successive approximation ADC [3][5].
The Infrared Radiation Sensors:
This device emits and detects infrared radiation. Generally,
ital
thermal radiation is emitted by all the objects in theinfrared
spectrum. The infrared sensor detects this type of radiation
which is not visible to the humaneye.
Copper Clads:
Copper Clads are normally used to craft PCBs but in Smart
Bin, they are also used as the capacitive plates.
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Bluetooth Module: VII. METHODOLOGY
HC-05 Bluetooth Module is an easy to use Bluetooth SPP Smart bin has different working modules as explained be- low:
(Serial Port Protocol) module, designed for transparent wire-
less serial connection setup. HC-05 Bluetooth module also
provides as witch ingmodebetweenmasterandslavemodes. It is
easy to use and setup and transmits data effectively with- out
anylosses.

Ultrasonic Sensor:
The HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor provides detection and ranging
over a wide range of distances. The sensorprovides precise and
stable non-contact distance measurements from about 2 cm to
4 meters with very high accuracy. It can be easily interfaced to
anymicrocontroller.

Servo Motors:
Servo motor consists of a gearbox and a potentiometer due
towhichwecancontroltheprecisepositionoftheshaftand hold it
there. It only uses one control signal for controlling them
ovement of the shaft which is restricted toarotation of 0 to180.

Stepper Motors:
The stepper motor divides one full rotation into steps. By
giving pulses to the stepper motor through the micro-
controller the position of the shaft can bechanged.

Motor Drivers:
The ULN2003A is an array of seven NPN Darlington tran-
sistors capable of 500 mA, 50 V output. This IC is used for
controlling the Stepper motor[8].

VI. SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

Arduino IDE:
Arduino IDE is an open source software developed by the
Arduino community. Arduino IDE is used to develop code for
boards in C and C++ using an enormous library of dif- ferent
modules provided by Arduino itself. We are usingthe Arduino
board and IDE to upload the code to Atmega328P [6].

Android Studio:
Android Studio is the official integrated development envi-
ronment used to develop applications for the Android plat-
form. It is an open source software built on JetBrains IDE.

R Studio:
RStudio is an integrated development environment built on R-
basewhichisusedforstatisticalcomputingandgraphical
visualization.

Fig. 2. Flow chart

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Automatic door:
The door of the smart bin opens automatically when a person
comes to close proximity. For this, we are using an Ultra-
sound sensor. The ultrasound sensor realizes when a person
comes close enough and is about to throw the waste and the
door opens. A servo motor is connected with the door, hence
anything in the close proximity triggers the door to open. This
makes the smart bin completely hands-free.
Segregation:
Wet and dry segregation: Value of capacitance depends on
the dielectric present between theplates.
A C=ε× (1)
D segregating the waste into 3 different types of waste we have 3
C = Capacitance
A = Area of Parallel plates
D = Distance between the parallel plates
×Permittivity
ε = s s r=
ε0= Absolute Permittivity = 8.84 10−×
12 F/m
εr= Relative Permittivity [2][4]
Garbage is collected in an arrangement consisting of two
copper clad plates fixed at 45◦ to the horizontal as the plates
are at 45◦, the projected vertical area is considered as ”A”.The
value of capacitance without any dielectric is 6.532 pF. When
Wet waste is thrown permittivity of wet waste is higher as
compared to dry waste hence the capacitance increases
considerably with respect to capacitance without any dielectric.
In case of dry waste capacitance increases by a small amount.
Once the waste is identified the respective chamber(Dry or
Waste) Aligns itself under the plates. One of the plates moves
and drops the garbage into the chamber.
Fig. 3. Setup of dry and wet segregator
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Plastic segregation: Plastic can be segregated by the method
of spectroscopy. In spectroscopy, we can identify if the waste
is a plastic or not by using an IR sensor [7]. We project an IR
light towards the waste. Based on the absorp- tivity of the
plastic, it can be identified and segregated. The absorptivity
cannot be measured directly hence Reflectivity and
Transmitivity ismeasured.
ttabs = tt − (ttref+tttr) (2)
G = Incident Radiation
Gabs = Absorbed Radiation
Gref = Reflected Radiation Gtr = TransmittedRadiation
Waste Chamber:
The waste once segregated falls into a chamber. As we are
different chambers for that and also along with that, we have
an additional chamber for storing the wastewater we get from
the auto clean feature as explained below.
Auto clean:
When required the auto clean can be activated with a press
ofabuttonwhichwilldisabletheultrasonicsensorandclose the lid
for 2 minutes. Clean water will be poured onto the plates
through a motor, this water will be collected into the fourth
chamber i.e. the wastechamber.
Optimization of waste disposal:
The smart bin is connected to the app and this app tells us what
waste is exactly disposed of by comparing their ca- pacitive
values. The app is connected to the cloud where a network is
created. Now based on this network we can op- timize garbage
paths. We can identify when each of the bin gets full and at
what particular time and can have an opti- mized path set for
the garbage disposal vehicles. This will save us a lot of money
in terms of fuel and will also save a lot of time of the people
involved in this process.
Reminder when the bin is full:
The smart bin will have an IR sensor attached to the top of the
waste chamber with a distance set at one centimetre. So this
means that when the chamber of a particular waste gets full,
the IR sensor will send a signal to the app which will tell the
user that it is time to take out the garbage or in case of
corporates or bins placed at different localities outside we can
identify a pattern as to what time it gets full and the authorities
can track it.
Recycling and reusing:
We can identify what waste the user throws by their capaci-
tive values and we can have these predetermined values set on
our app and when the user disposes a waste we can have it
identified and we can then through the network on the cloud,
let the garbage disposal unit know what waste can be recy-
cled and what waste can be reused and what waste is actually
just waste that is to be dumped. The wet waste that can be used
for composting will also be identified and we can thus save a
lot of human time in this and also avoid the human error.

Fig. 7. Capacitive readings

IX. CONCLUSION
The Smart Bin allows us to effectively and cleanly dispose of
Fig. 5. Circuit within prototype the waste. The automatic door opening system ensures that
garbage disposal by the humans is completely hands- free and
VIII. RESULTS
therefore extremely hygienic since there is no con- tact
The following table contains a few sample observations for the established with the bin. Waste thrown away is sorted
basic wet and dry segregation through their capacitive values: according to its capacitance. Wet waste has significantly larger
capacitance than dry waste and plastic and hence it is easily
Object Capacitive Reading (in Waste distinguishable. Plastic has different reflective proper- ties than
pF) type other dry waste and therefore infrared spectroscopy is the most
Threshold value 6.532 - suitable method to distinguish plastic from other dry waste.
Paper 7.668 Dry FUTURESCOPE
Banana peel 25430 Wet
This idea cum product can be very compatible with the up-
Plastic wrapper 7.709 Dry coming smart cities projects. We can have the garbage vehi-
Cloth 7.301 Dry cles pick up just one category of waste and optimize the path
Pen 7.260 Dry in which they do it thus making the entire waste segregation
and disposal method much more efficient.

Fig. 6. Prototype Fig. 8. Graph of drywaste

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 Proceedings of IEEE Sensors. 2. 7 - 11 Vol.1.
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Conference (TIIEC), Bangalore, 2014, pp. 1-6. doi:
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[4] Vishal V, Sayantan Gangopadhyay - Sir M Visvesvaraya
Institute of Technology - ”Capacitive Sensors: The Fu- ture of
Waste Segregation”
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Fig. 9. Graph of wetwaste and Research
[7] Edward A Bruno - ”Automated Sorting of Plastics for
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