Eco-friendly garbage segregator using sensor

Prof. Chandrashekhar Kalbande

Pooja Nighot, Ruchika Chowrasia, Pallavi
Parchake, Nalini Balki, Bhagyashree Tapre, Assistant Professor Department of Electronics and
Payal Golghate Communication Engineering,
Tulsiramji Gaikwad-Patil College of Engineering
Department of Electronics and Communication Technology, Nagpur
Engineering,
Tulsiramji Gaikwad-Patil College of Engineering
Technology, Nagpur

Abstract— Rapid increase in population has led to improper Thus, we have proposed a cost effective ―Automatic waste
waste management in metro cities and urban areas which has segregator and monitoring system‖ for proper management of
resulted in spreading of diseases. It is estimated that 2.02 billion waste. Automatic waste segregator categorizes the waste as
tones of municipal solid waste was generated universally in plastic, metallic or organic. The monitoring system helps to
2006. The segregation, transport, handling and disposal of waste monitor the waste collection process. The common method of
must be managed properly to minimize the risks to the public, waste disposal is by unplanned and uncontrolled dumping at
and the environment. An efficient method to dispose the waste landfill areas. This method is hazardous to human health,
has been designed in our project, “automatic waste segregator
plant and animal life. When the waste is segregated into basic
and monitoring system”. This paper proposes an automatic
waste segregator (AWS) which is a cheap, easy to use solution streams such as plastic, metallic and organic, the waste has a
for a segregation system at households, so that the wastes can be higher potential of recovery, and then, recycled and reused.
sent directly for processing. Automatic waste segregator is The organic waste is converted either into compost or
designed to sort the waste into three main categories namely; methane-gas or both. Compost can replace demand for
metallic, organic and plastic, thereby making the waste chemical fertilizers, and biogas can be used as a source of
management more effective. Ultrasonic sensors are added for energy. The metal waste could be reused or recycled.
monitoring waste collection process. The sensors would be
placed in all the garbage bins. When the garbage reaches the
level of the sensor, then the indication will be given to a Even if there are large scale industrial waste segregators
microcontroller. The microcontroller will give indication to the present, it is always feasible to separate the waste at the source
driver of garbage collection truck by sending SMS using GSM itself. The benefit of doing so is that the occupational hazard
technology. for waste workers is reduced. Also, the separated waste could
be directly sent to the recycling and processing plant instead
Keywords- Automatic waste segregator, waste management,
of sending it to the segregation plant then to the recycling
microcontroller, SMS, GSM
plant.
.

I. INTRODUCTION II. PROPOSED SYSTEM

In India about 60 million tonnes of waste is being generated

every year. Ten million tonnes of garbage is generated in The whole system is controlled by an Arduino Uno board. All
metropolitan cities. The landfills of most of these cities are other parts like ultrasonic sensors, inductive proximity sensor,
overflowing with no space for fresh garbage waste. The DC motors, blower and electromagnet are interfaced to the
philosophy of ―waste management hierarchy‖ has been Arduino board.
adopted by most nations as the step for developing municipal Open-Close Mechanism
solid waste (MSW) management strategies The open close mechanism acts as a regulator to control the
waste that falls on the belt. A 12 V DC geared motor receives
According to a sanitation survey called ―Swachh Survekshan- inputs from microcontroller to monitor the clockwise and anti-
2016‖ conducted by the ministry of urban development under clockwise motion of the motor. As motor rotates, the rotary
the swachh bharat mission, it was found that about 50% motion is translated to linear motion using a rack and pinion
people in India face the problem of improper waste collection arrangement. L293D is used as the motor driver IC to provide
and management. According to centre of science and the necessary current to the motor. This mechanism is initiated
environment, innovative disposal and recycling methods must only if the ultrasonic sensor at the inlet detects a waste.
be introduced instead of landfill sites.

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Conveyor Belt Electromagnet
It carries the waste from inlet to outlet sections. Four 12 V DC An electromagnet is a device used to generate a magnetic field
geared motors are used to move the belt. with the help of an electric current. Electromagnet usually
consists of a large number of closely spaced turns of wire that
Inductive Proximity Sensor create the magnetic field. The wire turns are often wound
Inductive proximity sensor based on the eddy current principle around a magnetic core made from a ferromagnetic or
is fixed in the inlet part to identify the presence of metals in ferromagnetic material such as iron; the magnetic core
the waste concentrates the magnetic flux and makes a more powerful
[11]. The NPN sensor gives a logical 0 output in the presence magnet. The main advantage of an electromagnet over a
of metal and logical 1 output in the absence of metal. This is permanent magnet is that the magnetic field can be quickly
fed as input to the microcontroller. changed by controlling the amount of electric current in the
winding.
Geared DC Motor
A motor takes electrical energy and converts into mechanical However, unlike a permanent magnet that needs no power, an
energy. A geared DC motor has a gear assembly attached to electromagnet requires a continuous supply of current to
the motor. The speed of motor is counted in terms of rotations maintain the magnetic field. The principle that electromagnets
of the shaft per minute and is termed as RPM. The gear work by is used in a wide range of electric and electronic
assembly helps in increasing the torque and reducing the devices such as electric motors, solenoids, tape drives and
speed. Using the correct combination of gears in a gear motor, even speakers and microphones. The simplest electromagnet
its speed can be reduced to any desirable figure. This concept can be built with a simple metal wire through which electric
where gears reduce the speed of the vehicle but increase its current is being circulated.
torque is known as gear reduction. The DC motor works over
a fair range of voltage. The higher the input voltage more is Ultrasonic Sensors
the RPM (rotations per minute) of the motor. For example, if Ultrasonic sensor is fixed in the inlet part so as to detect the
the motor works in the range of 6–2 V, it will have the least falling of waste. The trigger pulses are provided for ultrasound
RPM at 6 V and maximum at 12 V. detection of waste. The echo received from the waste is
received by the microcontroller to calculate the delay.
Blower Ultrasonic sensors will also be placed on every outlet bins
The blower separates plastic or paper wastes which are light (metal bin, plastic bin, organic bin) to check whether they are
weight. Dry and wet separation is based on their weight. Due filled or not. Whenever any of the bins are filled,
to its high density and weight, wet waste refuses to be blown corresponding information will be given to the monitoring
off even in the presence of a high speed blower. This system by a GSM module through short message service
technique is used to distinguish wet and dry waste. A relay (SMS).
will control the on and off of a high speed AC blower. As
blower blows, the belt stops and dry waste is thrown out into GSM Module
the dry bin. Wet waste stays on the belt. It then falls off due to Global system for mobile communication (GSM) is an
gravity at the end of the belt as it rolls. architecture used for mobile communication in most of the
countries. GSM module consists of a GSM modem assembled
together with power supply circuit and communication
interfaces like RS-232, USB, etc. for computer. The modem is
the soul of such modules. GSM modem is a class of wireless
modem devices that are designed for communication of a
computer with the GSM network. It requires a SIM
(Subscriber Identity Module) card just like mobile phones to
activate communication with the network. Also, they have
IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number
similar to mobile phones for their identification. A GSM
modem can perform the following operations: receive, send or
delete SMS messages in a SIM; read, add, search phonebook
Fig. : Block Diagram of Monitoring System entries of the SIM; and make, receive or reject a voice call.
Modem needs AT commands, for interfacing with processor
Robotic Arm or controller, which are communicated through serial
Metal wastes are separated by a robotic arm with an communication. Different AT commands supported by the
electromagnet fixed on the arm. Robotic arm delivers fast, MODEM can be sent by the processor/controller/computer to
accurate, and repeatable movement. The robot features are: interact with the GSM cellular network.
base rotation, single plane shoulder. When the metal is
detected by the inductive proximity sensor; the conveyor belt Monitoring System
stops. Control signal is given to robotic arm to extract the The monitoring system consists of a GSM module and a
metal by the electromagnet attached to it and then turn around computer. The SMS from waste bins will be fed into the
180° and drop the metal particles into a bin. Robotic arm computer by GSM module. MAX232 is an IC used for
moves with the help of two 12 V geared DC motors. interfacing a serial communication system to the computer.

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An SMS is sent from this monitoring system to the waste 6) The timing and movement of the conveyor belt is
collector or to clean up the filled bin. controlled by Arduino Uno. Continuous and unnecessary
operation of any particular section is thus avoided.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

REFERENCES
1) The waste segregator as the name suggests segregates the
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