ABSTRACT
With rapid urbanization, the country generates huge volume of waste and it faces high challenges in waste management. Over 377 million human beings stay in 7,935 towns generates 62 million tons of municipal stable waste per year. Among – 43 million tons (MT) of the waste, only 11.9 million tons are treated and 31 million tons of wastes are dumped in landfill sites, which is fraught with dangerous consequences. As per World Bank statistics, India’s daily waste generation will reach 377,000 tons by 2025. Hence, developing countries like India faces most important environmental challenges in waste collection, disposal, transport, and recycling treatment. In order to have a viable environment, a well-organized waste management system is required. The right step to develop such efficient management system is to bring technology into regular city management operations to three Rs mantra of reuse, reduce, and recycle the waste.
Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain are steadily growing and gaining its popularity in different aspects and become ubiquitous technologies today [61]. IoT interconnects different devices where they are able to actuate, quantify, and process the different data of environmental factors. It also actuates them based on the input and creates smart solutions. In this chapter, three technologies are used to build up a smart waste management system (SWMS). The sensors installed in each waste bin helps to detect the waste related information and data are collected and cloud based synthesis is performed to manage the waste efficiently. The SWMS also captures the various data such as weight and volume of waste disposal, costs per unit waste, truck number, and traffic information to automate the optimization of routes for garbage pickups and also for reward payments to the user. Payments are made using a custom cryptocurrency which is totally automate, highly secure process. Blockchain enables the users to access IoT data without the need for centralized control and management. Each transaction is double verified to prevent disputes. Moreover, intelligent categorization and segregation of waste is achieved by applying artificial intelligence to the system which helps in proper recycling process. The research on these technologies is getting reaped and it is looking forward to run the autonomous machine-to-machine waste management systems on blockchain in the near future. This chapter attempts to establish overall architecture of SWMS and its performance in different dimensions.
The footprint of electronics has been extending at breakneck pace in every aspect of our life and hence the generation of solid waste is likely to climb every year. This triggers to open up novel technological solutions to manage the waste and to make the city smarter [65]. The autonomous management systems are developed by interlinking IoT and blockchain by providing artificial intelligence to it. It serves as a smart management system for managing everyday municipal operations in smart city and to provide healthy and hygienic environment for citizens.
