In the modern era of rapid urbanization, cities face several challenges in managing their waste efficiently. With expanding urban areas, traditional waste management systems struggle to keep up with the increasing volume of waste generated daily.
However, amidst these challenges emerges a solution that promises to transform the way cities handle their waste – Smart Waste Management.
We were aware that cities need those challenges to be tackled down, so collaborating with our partner ELKOPLAST Slovakia we developed a complete smart waste management solution – Vastum.
Challenges and Obstacles
Traditionally, city waste management systems operate on fixed collection schedules regardless of the actual fill-level of waste containers, resulting in unnecessary routes to reach empty bins. This inefficiency leads to wasted fuel, working hours, and other valuable resources.
Consequences of these unoptimized systems present:
- Increased costs: The efficiency of waste collection directly impacts costs related to fuel, labor, and machinery hours.
- Overfilled containers: While some empty containers are collected, overfilled ones may not receive priority. This can result in attracting pests, littering, and citizen dissatisfaction.
- Missed collections: Traditional systems often struggle to identify missed waste container collections, leading to inconsistent service delivery.
- Increased carbon emissions: Excessive fuel consumption contributes to higher carbon emissions and worsens air quality in urban areas.
Consequences of these unoptimized systems present:
- Increased costs: The efficiency of waste collection directly impacts costs related to fuel, labor, and machinery hours.
- Overfilled containers: While some empty containers are collected, overfilled ones may not receive priority. This can result in attracting pests, littering, and citizen dissatisfaction.
- Missed collections: Traditional systems often struggle to identify missed waste container collections, leading to inconsistent service delivery.
- Increased carbon emissions: Excessive fuel consumption contributes to higher carbon emissions and worsens air quality in urban areas.
Innovate with IoT and LPWAN
One of the key features of smart waste management solutions is remote waste monitoring enabled by IoT devices. These devices are installed in waste bins and containers to monitor fill levels, temperature, and other relevant parameters in real-time.
By continuously monitoring waste levels, authorities can schedule collection activities precisely only when needed, minimizing unnecessary trips and optimizing resource allocation.
The monitoring devices are operating via LPWAN – low-power wide-area networks (such as LoRaWAN and NB-IoT) – the technology that brings several benefits:
- long-range data transmission: in urban areas up to 5 kilometers
- low-power consumption: devices can last up to 10 years on battery
- strong signal penetration: it can penetrate through materials such as concrete or metal
- wireless, compact and maintenance-free solution
One of the key features of smart waste management solutions is remote waste monitoring enabled by IoT devices. These devices are installed in waste bins and containers to monitor fill levels, temperature, and other relevant parameters in real-time.
By continuously monitoring waste levels, authorities can schedule collection activities precisely only when needed, minimizing unnecessary trips and optimizing resource allocation.
The monitoring devices are operating via LPWAN – low-power wide-area networks (such as LoRaWAN and NB-IoT) – the technology that brings several benefits:
- long-range data transmission: in urban areas up to 5 kilometers
- low-power consumption: devices can last up to 10 years on battery
- strong signal penetration: it can penetrate through materials such as concrete or metal
- wireless, compact and maintenance-free devices
The Solution is Vastum
Smart waste management Vastum combines the use of IoT technology and software platform, which help to improve the efficiency of waste collection, optimize collection costs, save time, resources, and decrease carbon footprint. Vastum serves to make waste management more intelligent, convenient, sustainable, and cost-effective.
Our smart solution Vastum brings numerous advantages to municipalities, including:
- real-time monitoring: fill levels, fire detection, tampering with trash cans, and providing containers’ GPS positioning
- notifications: alerting about reaching a certain fill level in order to schedule the next emptying
- analytics: assessing the public demand for additional bins or new stands in specific areas through data analysis
- route optimization: managing vehicle fleets and planning routes efficiently, utilizing the Vastum algorithm
- administration: user roles for drivers, administrators, and observers through both web and mobile applications
For Any Container and Material
Our goal was to create a system that would be suitable for every use case. In collaboration with ELKOPLAST Slovakia, we designed our system to be compatible with any type of container and waste:
Containers:
- semi-underground and underground containers
- plastic containers for residual and sorted waste
- roll-off and skip containers
- outdoor litter bins, etc.
Waste types:
- unsorted waste (residual)
- sorted waste (paper, plastic, glass, metal, etc.)
As we are not limited by only one type of sensor for waste level monitoring, we utilize the power of various types of monitoring devices, what makes Vastum applicable in any conditions. We use:
- ultrasonic level sensors
- radar level sensors
- LiDAR level sensors
- ToF level sensors
