Development of Smart Waste Bin Segregation using

Image Processing
2021 IEEE 13th International Conference on Humanoid, Nanotechnology, Information Technology, Communication and Control, Environment, and Management (HNICEM) | 978-1-6654-0167-8/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/HNICEM54116.2021.9732038

Froilan N. Jimeno II
Electronics Engineering Program
College of Engineering
Education, University of
Mindanao
Davao City, Philippines
fjimeno@umindanao.edu.ph
Briely Jay A. Briz
Electronics Engineering Program
College of Engineering
Education, University of
Mindanao
Davao City, Philippines
bbriz@umindanao.edu.ph
Marvin Roy P. Artiaga
Electronics Engineering Program
College of Engineering
Education, University of
Mindanao
Davao City, Philippines
martiaga@umindanao.edu.ph
Randy E. Angelia
Computer Engineering Program
College of Engineering
Education, University of
Mindanao
Davao City, Philippines
randy_angelia@umindanao.edu.ph

Noel B. Limsangan
School of Electrical, Electronics
and Computer Engineering
Mapua University
Manila, Philippines
nblinsangan@mapua.edu.ph

Abstract— In the Philippines, solid waste management is still a
significant problem. Improper waste disposal causes serious
health problems and environmental risks such as contamination
of the water systems, floods, ground and air pollution, and
diseases. Unfortunately, most people mistakenly believe that not
segregating waste is acceptable. This study aims to develop and
design a Smart Waste Bin Segregation using Image Processing and
assist waste segregation through waste identification and
segregation built on machine learning capable of navigating the
one-time path set by the user. In particular, create an intelligent
waste bin segregation prototype using image processing with three
classifications. These classifications are the biodegradable, non-
bio-degradable, and unknown intended to segregate solid waste
into its respective bins and conduct accuracy tests using
appropriate statistical tools. This device is designed for school use
and may also be used in other establishments if more waste is
trained, alleviate the waste segregation problem and help build an
eco-friendlier society without compromising health and hygiene.
The proponents successfully materialized the device, and function
tests yielded an overall result of 97.33% accuracy.
Keywords— Aluminum Can, Plastic Bottles, Plastic Spoon and
Fork, Plastic Cups, White Bond Paper, Faster R-CNN, Object
Detection, Push-Pull Type Solenoid
I. INTRODUCTION
Appropriate waste management is included in the country's
leading problems nowadays. The considerable quantity of
waste produced is disposed of through methods the adversely
affect the environment due to improper waste management.
About 35,580 tons of trash are made each day in the Philippines.
Rural and urban regions produce an average of 0.3 to 0.5 kg of
waste [1]. In Davao City, City Environmental and Natural
Resources Office (CENRO) reported in 2018 that an average
waste generation of 1,012 tons daily. In 2016, the city's
dumpsite reached its highest capacity of 900,000 tons. Severe
health issues and environmental degradation arising from
improper waste disposal due to the incorrect assumption of
most people who do not segregate waste [2]. Solid waste
management in the Philippines under the Republic Act 9003 is
implemented in public places such as schools. Schools generate
mostly plastic wastes and single-use containers, making an
ideal place to conduct the study [3]. Hence, this study aims to
develop a waste separation system used in public and private
areas to achieve appropriate waste disposal.
Sorting at the primary level has an integral part before
disposing of the waste into the landfills. More workforce and
time are needed to sort waste using the conventional way.
Different methods and forms may be used to sort waste. An
example is a Mobile Robot Delivery System that collects trash
bins and garbage sorted out by an Automated Waste Sorter
(AWS). In AWS, a set of sensors controls the process together
with a conveyor belt that corresponds to each waste material [4-
7]. In different studies, collecting waste is monitored using
sensors in the bins, which signals the microcontroller full of
garbage. The garbage collector is notified by sending a short
message service (SMS) using Global System for Mobile
Communication (GSM) technology. In another study, a system
grants the user of the bin reward points for proper segregation
of waste, and the quantity of the trash can be checked on a
website which also shows the reward points gained by the user
[8]. Several sensors were used to classify waste, determining
the difference between wet, dry, metallic, and hers for
automated waste disposal. In their study, infrared, metal,
ultrasonic, and proximity sensors were used to detect waste.
The object is placed on the conveyor. The motor driver controls
the motor according to the output of the inductive sensor and

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capacitive sensor. If the material is metal, the transporter II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
pauses, and the metal in the metal container is collected. If the
A. Conceptual Framework
substance is a nonmetal, the object advances towards the
capacitive sensor in the clockwise direction. The motor driver The conceptual framework of the Smart Waste Bin
pauses the conveyor motor. The microcontroller controls the Segregation begins with waste image acquisition. The images
engine to pick up the glass material into the glass bin when its are then processed in the computer, which involves resizing,
capacitive sensor output is high enough to signal that the training the classier, classifying the waste, and sending it to the
Arduino Uno to control the solenoid circuitry. After the
material is glass. The conveyor motor continues in the same
classification, a bin opens for the disposal of the classified waste.
direction when the capacitive sensor output is low and plastic
Fig. 1 shows the conceptual framework of the Smart waste bin
material is collected in the plastic bin. [9-11]. segregation.
Another method of segregating waste is the technology of
Image processing. Analysis and classification of waste through
image processing can be a very efficient means of processing
waste material. Waste images are classified primarily into two
levels as biodegradable and non-biodegradable [12-14]. The IR
sensor detects the waste material and sends a signal to
Raspberry PI to turn on the camera. The image is processed
using MATLAB software, which compares the image with the
photos and delivers a command to the motor via Raspberry Pi,
Fig. 1 Conceptual Framework
based on the characteristic value. By applying an image
processing methodology using MATLAB and K-means
segmentation, the system automatically detects the object using B. Materials and Resources
the ultrasonic sensor, classifying the waste into biodegradable Fig. 2 shows the proposed design of the Smart Waste Bin
and non-biodegradable waste [15-16]. Embedded technology is Segregation, which includes the front and back views with the
used to monitor the garbage bins to inspect if it is full or not. dimensions. The box used for detecting the waste is 1.67 ft x
Individuals must control the transport and disposal of waste to 3.38 ft x 0.67 ft. The materials used for the intelligent waste bin
reduce the people's risks and the environment [17-18]. were aluminum tubular and whiteboards. The circuits were
In this study, the general objective is to create a prototype of placed in the small box inside the container together with the
intelligent waste bin segregation using image processing system unit. The proponents built the device with a backdoor to
intended to segregate solid waste into its respective bins and aid have easy access to troubleshooting and to collect the garbage
in recycling wastes from schools. Specifically, the objectives and four wheels for mobility.
are to design a waste bin segregation machine, classify waste
according to its qualification such as biodegradable and
recyclable, and conduct an accuracy test using the appropriate
statistical tool with a higher accuracy rate from the prior studies.
This study aims to make the segregation of waste more
accurate and effortless with the integration of new image
technology. Proper waste segregation aids in making recyclable
waste valuable and in recent technological advancements,
which allow waste to be converted to different forms and
energy. This also aims to assist waste segregation with a bin
capable of going through the one-time path set by the user
through image processing for waste identification and sorting
by training the machine.
The research study focused on developing an automatic
waste bin segregation using image processing. This study can
analyze the waste that stakeholders from the schools produce,
which captures the image of the garbage one after the other and
classify the garbage such as white bond papers and paper cups
and recyclable such as plastic bottles, aluminum cans, plastic
spoons, and fork. The proponents shall use Arduino Uno for
implementing the open and close movement of the bins. Fig. 2 Proposed Design of the Smart Waste Bin Segregation
However, the user must remove the solid and liquid contents of
containers manually before disposal.
Fig. 3 shows the complete circuitry of operating the solenoid.
The proponents created this circuit to automate segregation. The
Arduino Uno controls both the solenoid and LED lights (which
requires a relay before connecting to the Arduino Uno). A

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transistor (TIP120) is used as a bridge and acts as a switch for
the solenoids. The TIP120 allows switching the voltage from
small to large. The diode 1N4007 connected to the solenoid
allows the ow of current to be unidirectional. The diode directs
the current back to the solenoid until it disappears. Thus, the
Arduino acts as a server that receives and sends data, while the
computer acts as a client that sends requests and receives data.
Fig. 3 Block Diagram of Operating the Solenoid
The computer used were Ryzen5 3600 for the central
processing unit, Nvidia RTX 2060 for the graphics processing
unit, Aorus B450-M for the motherboard, 16GB of RAM with a
3200MHz of RAM speed, 1 TB hard drive for storage, 250GB
solid-state drive, and 650W power supply. The Image
processing of the system is utilized Faster R-CNN.
C. Methods and Procedures
The project gathered aluminum cans, plastic bottles, plastic
cups, white bond papers, and plastic spoons and forks. The
proponents chose these wastes since they can be commonly
found around a school campus. Next, multiple photographs of
each sample were taken inside a box with a green. Fig. 4 shows
the examples of waste images. One thousand pictures were taken
of the aluminum cans, 695 plastic bottles, 695 plastic cups, 695
white bond paper, and 695 spoons and forks.
Fig. 4 Sample Images of the Waste
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The images of the samples were saved in a single folder and
used for image training. The application used to generate codes
for image training was PyCharm Python which uses Faster R-
CNN.
Microsoft created the Faster RCNN model. It is a single,
end-to-end, unified, deep convolutional network that predicts
the positions of distinct objects. The first object detection model
is the region-based CNN, followed by Fast R-CNN and the
Faster R-CNN. Traditionally, there are three significant steps in
object detection. The first one is creating region proposals which
are locations that possibly have objects in them. Image
descriptors are then used to extract fixed-length feature vectors
that should sufficiently describe the thing despite changes like
scale or translation. The region proposals are then assigned to
object classes based on the feature vector extracted. The Faster
R-CNN utilizes a fully convolutional network called Region
Proposal Network (RPN), which generates region proposals and
informs the object's location for object detection. In addition, the
RPN implements attention in neural networks. Like the
traditional object detection method, the Faster R-CNN follows
the three significant steps but additional features. The RPN
generates region proposals, and a feature vector is extracted
from the recommendations using the Region of Interest pooling
layer, feature vectors extracted from region proposals are
classified, and detected objects in their bounding boxes with
their class scores are returned. As seen in [19, Fig. 5.]
[19, Fig. 5] Faster R-CNN Workflow
The Convolutional layer of the convolutional neural network
is where features are extracted and placed in the dense output
layer and fed into the Support Vector Machine to classify objects
in the candidate region proposal. The algorithm predicts four
offset values for the precision of the bounding boxes. In [19, Fig.
6], the RPN creates a feature map from the convolutional layer.
The feature map is moved through a rectangular sliding window
the size of nxn, wherein n=3. K region proposals are generated
from each window. These proposals are parameterized
according to the anchor box, which has two parameters. These
parameters are scale and aspect ratio. There are three scales and
three aspect ratios, therefore a total of nine anchor boxes. These
anchors are present in different scales and share features
between the RPN and the Fast R-CNN detection network. A
feature vector with a length of 256 for ZF net and 512 for VGG-
16 net is extracted and fed to two fully connected (FC) layers
from the individual region proposal. The first FC layer is "cls,"
which creates the objectness score for a particular submission,
and the second is "reg," which returns a vector delineating the
region's bounding box.
[19, Fig. 6] Region Proposal Network Feature Map
Generating Anchor Boxes
Fig.7 Losses per Training Graph
The application's virtual environment was TensorFlow. The
images gathered were used to train the detection classier using
the default hyperparameter. There is a total of 3,780 images with
sizes ranging from 600 to 1024. The labeled images were used
as input data to the training model. A labeled map is created,
which tells the trainer the object type by determining the class
names to class ID numbers. Before running, the training was
configured by modifying the number of classes and samples and
leaching paths to the training data. Losses are reported in each
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training step that begins high and gradually becomes lower as
the training progresses, as shown in Fig 7, called the Loss graph.
The training of the classier was successfully done. PyFirmata is
a protocol that permits serial communication between Arduino
Uno and Python script running on any computer, allowing
access to any pin on the Arduino to be read and written.
PyFirmata was used for the computer and Arduino to control all
the pins in the Arduino Uno board. After the training, tests were
run, and results were recorded. Fig. 8 shows the images of
running the application for testing.
Fig. 8 Images of Test Results after Training the Classifier
Fig. 9 shows the process of segregating the waste, which
begins in waste image acquisition. The computer then classifies
the waste and shows the label on the screen. Next, the push-pull
type solenoid opens, and the LED light for the bin turns on. Once
the camera detects the object, the classification is shown on the
screen, and the solenoid opens simultaneously. After the
solenoid opens, there is a 10-second delay before the solenoid
closes again, and the system is again available to classify another
object.
Fig. 9 Block Diagram of the Smart Waste Bin Segregation
 III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Fig. 10 shows the actual design or the physical structure of
the Smart Waste Bin Segregation. It is composed of a twenty-
four-inch monitor, a hollow cube with a dimension of 1.67ft x
1.63ft x 0.67ft. Inside the cube, it has a 1080p with an autofocus
camera and LED lights above. The surface of the cube is covered
with a green cloth. Each bin has LED lights on top of the lid and
a push-pull type solenoid. The system unit is found inside the
waste bin.
Fig. 10 Actual Device
There were 3,780 images used to train the classier: 1000
aluminum cans, 695 plastic bottles, 695 plastic cups, 695 white
bond papers, and 695 of the spoon and fork. Fig. 6 shows what
appears on the screen upon testing the classier. Abounding box
isolates the waste on the image. The classification of the waste
also appears together with the percentage of the accuracy.
The training process involves learning the exact weights or
biases in the images for the neurons in the network to classify
them into biodegradable, non-biodegradable, and unknown
correctly.
Fig. 11 Confusion Matrix Results
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As shown in Fig. 11, the confusion matrix displays the
correct and incorrect predictions in the classification labels. The
accuracy in the results shows how reliable the system is in
predicting the five different classifications of waste and one
unknown variety. As observed in the confusion matrix shown in
Fig. 11, seven strange plastic cups were classified into aluminum
cans. The wrong classification of the seven unknown and a
plastic cup into aluminum cans was attributable to the likelihood
of the images with each other. These similarities are the shapes
and colors of the objects in the photos. This conveys that the
object inside the bounding box regression is not part of the
background. The percentage is computed by multiplying the
results by 100%. In the training process, the training loss and
accuracy were evaluated to ensure the reliability of the results.
The training loss, as shown in Fig. 7, gradually decreases over
time.
!"#$%&' %&
(1)
()*+, -./01 )2 +.3,04
AC refers to Aluminum Cans, PB refers to Plastic Bottles,
PC refers to Plastic Cups, WP refers to White Paper, and UNK
refers to Unknown. The overall accuracy of the results was
97.33%, and it was calculated using (1).
IV. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS
A prototype of the Smart Waste Bin Segregation using
Image Processing was successfully materialized and tested.
Solid waste such as aluminum cans, plastic bottles, plastic cups,
white bond paper, plastic spoons, and forks was classified and
segregated in their respective bins using image processing.
Implementing the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) concept in
everyday lives will benefit every community and encourage
people. It assists the user in automatically segregating waste
through an image processing program system that can identify
the type of material where it belongs.
For future development, the study can be enhanced by
adding more numbers of images trained to lessen errors and
increase accuracy during classification and add a variety of
waste during training other than the ones included to expand the
types of garbage thrown into the bin. An added feature can also
be through waste monitoring collection through a notification
system that alerts the garbage collector for easier and faster
display of waste by receiving SMS. In addition to developing a
waste collection monitoring system, we recommend using
sensors to determine whether the bin is full. Both three garbage
cans will have these sensors mounted. When the garbage has
accumulated to the point that it triggers the sensor, the program
system will automatically send SMS messages to notify the
garbage collection.
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