Automatic Waste Segregator as an integral part of
Smart Bin for waste management system in a Smart
City
Chander Partap Singh*
Chitkara University Institute of Engineering and Technology,
Chitkara University, Punjab, India
*chander.singh@chitkara.edu.in
Pao-Ann Hsiung
National Chung-Cheng University,
Minxiong Township, Chiayi County, Taiwan
pahsiung@csie.io
Abstract— In the era of developing technology where the
urbanization is increasing rapidly, the corresponding waste is
increasing exponentially. As the concept of smart cities is
emerging, there is a need for a proper framework in order to
tackle this problem. Although a lot of efforts have been put by
researchers to propose various approaches to circumvent this
issue, the problem still remains. The major problem faced while
designing a smart method for waste collection and monitoring is
the segregation of different types of wastes. The waste is still
being segregated manually, thus producing a harmful effect on
the segregator itself. This paper reports an automatic segregator
system that can differentiate and store dry and wet waste
separately. The developed prototype of the system efficiently
segregates dry and wet waste in their respective containers.
Keywords— Automatic waste segregator, efficient waste
management, internet of things, smartbin, smart city.
I. INTRODUCTION
In the world of advanced technology, urbanization has
grown exponentially. More than half of the World’s
population constitutes the part of urban regions [1]. This shift
of the population to urban areas give rise to the concept of
Smart Cities (SCs). Smart city concept emerges from the
incorporation of two prominent technologies, Internet of
Things (IoT) and Information and Communication
Technology [2]. IoT enables the controlling and
communication of different nodes in a framework via the
internet using six IoT elements namely IoT identification,
sensing, communication, computation, semantics, and
services [3].
In simplest words, from literature, an SC can be defined
as “A city where all the infrastructure including people,
buildings, roads, tunnels, power, water supply, seaports, and
even major airports are interconnected through a proper
framework of IoT” [4]. It is a vision to utilize advanced
information and communication technologies for enhancing
the lifestyle of residents of an SC [5].
The increased population in rural and urban regions leads
to an eventual increase in solid waste, therefore, making
efficient waste management a global issue. Improper waste
management frameworks lead to epidemics such as flu,
smallpox, hepatitis, and jaundice, etc. The major example
could be the 1994 plague outbreak in Surat, Gujarat [6]. In
order to avoid such future calamities in an SC, there is a need
to employ an efficient alternative of waste management
framework using IoT. The researchers have worked upon
different frameworks to achieve this such as Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) based bins that can convey the bin
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Manisha
Chitkara University Institute of Engineering and Technology,
Chitkara University, Punjab, India
manisha@chitkara.edu.in
Shivani Malhotra
Chitkara University Institute of Engineering and Technology,
Chitkara University, Punjab, India
shivani.malhotra@chitkara.edu.in
levels to the users once the tag on the bin is scanned [7] [8],
smart garbage sensor-based bins [9] which replaces the RFID
to improve the energy efficiency by 16%, Infrared (IR) based
garbage level conveying bins [10], radio frequency (Zig Bee)
based bins to convey the bin level [11], ultrasonic based level
detecting bins [12], weight sensor-based bins [13], and global
positioning system based bins to send the bin level along with
their location to a centralized server [14]. The
aforementioned survey clearly states that most of the
researchers have put in an effort to get the bin level and
publish it on a monitoring server so as to notify the
corporations. Though a few of the researchers have worked
on segregating the waste in the bins such as R. Singh and B.
Singh [15] have worked on segregating the biodegradable and
non-biodegradable waste but failed to segregate the dry and
wet waste efficiently, Y. Glouche and P. Couderc [16] have
designed a system that could open the bin based on type of
the waste to be thrown which is detected by using RFID
which again being a pervasive technique needs to be
preinstalled in the trash to get detected therefore is not
feasible at all times, P. Srivastava et al. have improved the
work by [17] but again it is for already dumped waste and do
not segregate the wet and dry waste. As most of the places
use two bins for wet and dry waste there is a need for a system
that can pre-segregate the waste in these categories before
dumping them into the containers.
In this paper an IoT enabled Automatic Waste Segregator
(AWS) as an integral part of a smart bin has been designed
and implemented in order to differentiate and store wet and
dry waste in different containers. This will reduce the labor
time and manpower being used nowadays to segregate these
two types of waste. Furthermore, this system can be used in
a smart bin to improve efficiency and enhance the
applicability of the overall system.
This paper is organized into five sections as follows:
Section II providing the detail of the proposed AWS system
follows the current section of Introduction. Section III
presents the system workflow of the AWS. While Section IV
depicts the results and discussion on the proposed prototype.
The important conclusions drawn from the present piece of
work are presented in Section V.
II. SYSTEM DESIGN OF AWS BLOCK
This section addresses the design of the proposed system
of AWS. Fig. 1 represents the block diagram (top view) with
sensors for the proposed AWS scheme. Based on the
requirement of segregating the wet and dry waste in different
 AWS base panel C. Actuator Network
IR sensor IR sensor
The blocks discussed so far are to differentiate the wet waste
from the dry one but the sole objective of segregating them is
Rain drop sensor Rain drop sensor still left out. To achieve the overall objective an actuator unit
has been designed to properly shift the waste in their
corresponding containers. The actuator unit consists of the
following components:
• Direct Current (DC) motor
Moisture sensor Moisture sensor
It is the most common type of motor with just two leads
to produce rotary motion. The direction of the rotation
can be changed by just changing the polarity of leads on
Servo motor Servo motor
the motor. The DC motor is employed in the system to
DC motor
transfer the panel with dry or wet waste to its
corresponding unit for collection.
Fig. 1. Top view of the panel designed for AWS system.
• Motor Driver
containers following are the different blocks used in To drive the motor from a controlling board an
designing the overall AWS system: intermediate motor controller is needed otherwise it
could damage the board itself. In this work, the L298N
A. Controller
motor driver is used. This driver basically works on a
The controller used is Raspberry Pi 3 Model B based on voltage of 12V. Moreover, it can be used to control the
1.2 GHz quad-core Broadcom BCM2837 central processing direction as well as the speed of the DC motor interfaced
unit with 1 GB on-chip random access memory. It has 40 pins through it [22].
extended general-purpose input-output header. It has 4 USB
version 2 ports to connect peripherals like keyboard and
optical mouse. Moreover, with BCM43438 wireless LAN
and Bluetooth low energy (BLE) on board, it is a fully
integrated microcomputer ready for IoT deployment [18].
B. Sensor Network
In this unit 3 types of sensors have been used namely:
infrared (IR) sensor, raindrop sensor, and moisture sensor.
• IR sensor
An active IR sensor is used in the system design. The
typical operating voltage of IR sensor module is 5V. It
consists of two elements i.e. an IR emitter and an IR
receiver. Once the emitted energy by the source is
reflected by an object and received by detector a signal
is generated implying the presence of some object. Once
the waste is detected by IR sensor in the AWS system it
will activate all other sensors in the system [19].
• Raindrop sensor
A resistive raindrop sensor based on LM393 comparator
operational amplifier is used in the system design. It
typically works on operating voltage of 5V. The basic
principle behind the sensor is that whenever the water
combines the parallel lines of the sensor it reduces the
resistance, therefore, the output voltage drops and while
there is no water on it the output is maximum. The
sensitivity of the module can be adjusted using the on-
chip potentiometer. The raindrop sensor is connected in
calibration to moisture sensor to distinguish the wet and
dry waste [20].
• Moisture sensor
A capacitive moisture sensor FC-28 with an operating
voltage of 5V is used in designing the system. It
measures the dielectric permittivity of the surrounding
medium which is a function of water content. The
module outputs a voltage corresponding to the dielectric
permittivity, therefore, outputting the water content.
The sensor in calibration with the environmental Fig. 2. Flowchart for the wet container of the AWS system.
conditions and raindrop sensor provides an effective
way to distinguish wet waste from the dry waste [21].

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 • Servo Motor TABLE I. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT OF ROTATIONAL STATE OF
A servo motor is basically a brushed DC motor but with THE AWS FOR DRY COMPARTMENT OF THE BIN.

a positional feedback control connected to the rotor State of State of State of

Rotational
shaft. It is used to rotate the object with great precision IR Rain Drop Moisture
S. No. State
Sensor Sensor Sensor
at specific angles. In the reported AWS system this is (X1) (Y1) (Z1)
(R1)
used to drop down the waste in the compartment once 1. 0 † † †
the panel has reached its correct position. 2. 1 0 0 0
3. 1 1 0 1
D. Power Supply 4. 1 0 1 1
5. 1 1 1 1
As discussed earlier the different sensors run on different
operating voltages. In the designed system most of the
modules are running on 5V which can be taken directly from TABLE II. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT OF ROTATIONAL STATE OF
the raspberry pi. However, DC motor driver needs an THE AWS FOR WET COMPARTMENT OF THE BIN.
operating voltage of 12V, therefore, a battery for providing State of State of State of
the proper voltage as per the requirement is employed. The Rotational
IR Rain Drop Moisture
S. No. State
raspberry pi has been powered through a power bank. Sensor Sensor Sensor
(R2)
(X2) (Y2) (Z2)
III. AWS SYSTEM WORKFLOW 1. 0 † † †
2. 1 0 0 1
The individual working of the integrated sensors for each 3. 1 1 0 0
compartment is represented by the flowchart shown in Fig. 2. 4. 1 0 1 0
The functioning of the AWS system has been broadly divided 5. 1 1 1 0
into three units: activation unit, differentiator unit, and
distributor unit. All these units perform their individual in the compartment and then the system will return to its
functions for the overall system to work properly. original state. However, when a wet type of waste is detected
in a compartment meant for dry waste the generated signal,
A. Activation unit (AU) in that case, will firstly rotate the shaft using DC motor
Activation unit includes IR sensor placed in each of the towards the wet compartment and then the servo motor will
dry and wet compartment and the status of this unit decides drop the waste in that bin. The system will restore its original
the activation of the other two units, hence the name space after performing the required action. Similarly, for the
activation unit. AU will look for any incoming trash by wet compartment, the functions will be the same, except now
checking the status of employed IR sensors. Once the status the system will check the condition for dry waste to transfer
of IR sensor corresponding to the presence of any object is it to other compartment.
detected, it will activate the other two units to perform their The prototype has been checked with different materials
specified function thus saving the energy consumption of the and the result thus obtained are discussed in the following
overall system. The system is designed in such a manner that section.
the left compartment is to collect dry waste and the right one
for the wet waste. Therefore, whenever the trash is detected IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS
on the left panel only the sensors working in the dry The operating principle of AWS system for the dry
compartment will get activated and likewise for the wet compartment is tabulated in Table I. It can clearly be inferred
container. from this table that the AWS panel rotates in cases: when
B. Differentiator unit there is digital ‘1’ reading on IR sensor and digital ‘1’ reading
on either of the raindrop or moisture sensor. Also, it can
This unit comprises of raindrop sensors and moisture clearly be seen that rotational state (R1) is independent of the
sensors one of both placed in each of the wet and dry state of Raindrop Sensor (Y1) and Moisture Sensor (Z1)
compartment. As evident from the name itself, the main whenever the state of the IR sensor (X1) is digital ‘0’
functioning of the unit is to differentiate the waste in dry or indicated by the symbol ‘†’.
wet type depending upon the data collected from these This can be expressed in Boolean expression as follows:
sensors. The working of the raindrop sensor and moisture
sensor has already been explained in section II. The unit has R1 = X 1 • (Y 1 + Z1) (1)
been calibrated to distinguish between wet and dry trash.
These conditions are then set as a threshold in the program.
Once the incoming trash has been differentiated as wet or dry TABLE III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS FOR DIFFERENT WASTE
MATERIALS ON THE BASIS OF PERCENTAGE OF MOISTURE CONTENT (%).
by the system depending upon that predefined threshold value
the data is sent to the distributor unit to perform the S. No. Waste Material
Moisture State of
corresponding action. Detected (%) Waste
1. Plastic 0.01 Dry
C. Distributor unit 2. Steel 1.5 Dry
3. Glass 0.4 Dry
So far, the system has been able to detect and differentiate 4. Orange Peel 65 Wet
the waste as wet or dry type. This unit will be concerned about 5. Wet Paper 100 Wet
segregating the waste into their corresponding compartments. 6. Melon Peel 78 Wet
The unit includes a DC motor and servo motors for 7. Leftover Apple 59 Wet
performing the actuating functions. For instance, if dry type 8. Aluminium Foil 2.36 Dry
9. Dry Cloth 0.5 Dry
waste is detected in a compartment meant for collecting the 10. Wet Cloth 95 Wet
dry waste the differentiator unit will generate a signal to
actuate the corresponding servo motor to drop off the waste

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 Similarly, the operating conditions for the wet
compartment of the AWS system are construed in Table II.
The Boolean expression for the same will be the following:
R 2 = X 2 • (Y 2 + Z 2) (2)
Using these two equations Eq. (1) and (2) one can
generate a code for the respective microcontroller to control
the working of the AWS system.
Fundamentals:
IR: Digital ‘1’ when garbage is sensed and digital ‘0’
when no garbage is present.
Rain Drop Sensor and Moisture Sensor: Digital ‘1’ when
the garbage is wet and digital ‘0’ for dry garbage.
Rotational State: Digital ‘1’ when the panel is rotating and
digital ‘0’ for no rotation of panel.
Note: ‘†’ stands for don’t care state.
Table III tabulates the experimental results obtained from
eight different types of waste materials namely plastic, steel,
glass, orange peel, wet paper, melon peel, leftover apple, and
aluminum foil. The materials are construed with their
respective moisture content. Clearly, the wet wastes have a
higher value of moisture content (59% to 100%) as compared
to dry wastes (0-3%). Thus, this experiment signifies that the
AWS system can effectively separate the dry and wet wastes
into their respective compartments automatically. Once the
AWS system sense and rotates (if necessary) the panel at the
right position according to the type of waste placed on the
panel, servo motor rotates to 0º and push the waste in the
respective compartment. The whole AWS system regains the
original position once the whole process is completed.
Fig. 3. illustrates the working prototype of the AWS
system. The developed model has the dimensions as follows:
Length = 20 cm; Width = 15 cm; Distance between two
panels = 7 cm; Distance of pole of rotation from motor = 7
cm.
*cm = centimeters.
The presented prototype has been successfully deployed
for around 1 kilogram of trash for each bin and has achieved
quite a high accuracy of around 90% based on detecting the
right type of waste in the bin. Also, as the performance
parameter, the system takes about 0.5 to 1 second to
differentiate the waste either as dry or wet and in a case where
the waste has to be transferred to other compartment it takes
about 5 seconds to complete the process of distribution.
However, the power consumption of the system varies on the
usage of different modes. In idle mode, it consumes a total of
Fig. 3. Working prototype of the AWS system.
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1.4W*24h (33.6Wh) of power whereas in extreme working
conditions when all the sensors are on the system consumes
a total of 2.6W*12h (62.4Wh) of power per day.
V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE
A smart and automatic waste segregator unit has
successfully been implemented in the reported work. The
AWS system separated the dry (recyclable) and wet (residual)
waste efficiently using a raspberry pi, moisture sensor, and
raindrop sensor as the main modules. Also, designing the
system in three units i.e. activation, differentiator and
distributor help saving the battery consumption as the
condition for sensor activation of the next state depends upon
the previous state. However, there is always a scope for
improvement in the prototype in order to improve the
performance and circumvent any major limitations. The
AWS system is expected to improve the environmental
conditions and reduce the harmful effects on the people
involved in manual segregation of the waste. The AWS
system can easily be implemented as an integral part of a
smart bin to provide an additional feature to the bin.
Investigating and resolving the shortcomings of the AWS
system and integrating it in designing a smart bin will be the
focus of our future work.
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