International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications (ICTA 2016) Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria November 28 – 30, 2016 ICT-Based Framework for Solid Waste Collection, Transfer and Disposal Faiza Babakano Jada, Ishaq O. Oyefolahan, Hussein A. Zubairu, and Stella O. Etuk Department of Information and Media Technology, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria {faiza.bkano, o.ishaq, abu.zubairu, abiolastella}@futminna.edu.ng Abstract—As the world population is growing so is the waste Positional System) for georeferencing. These combinations that we produce. Most of these wastes are hazardous to the of ICT based technologies would be employed to better environments and hence causes sustainability challenges to the manage wastes in our communities. environment. Proper waste management is key in ensuring the health and well being of any environment. This paper explored A. Background the need for proper waste disposal, it challenges and prospects. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an It then demonstrated the role of ICT in providing effective umbrella term that includes any communication device or communication process for solid waste collection, transfer and disposal by proposing a novel ICT-based framework for that. application including TV, radio, computers, handsets, network hardware and software etc as well as the various Keywords-solid waste; ICT-based framework; smart systems services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning [4]. ICT has been argued by some researchers to be the fourth utility of man I. INTRODUCTION after housing, water and electricity [5]. Since the inception of The word Sustainability has a broad connotation and is the ICT revolution in the early 1990‟s, ICT has continued to often used interchangeably with the phrase „sustainable grow at an exponential rate in both developed and development‟. In order to make it more concrete, developing countries as conveyed from ICT statistics in [6] sustainability is often considered from various perspectives and “the world continuous to move faster and faster towards mainly the ecological, the economic and the social a digital society” [6]. perspective [1][2]. The concept of sustainability gained Waste can refer to substances that we produce from our currency with the report of the World Commission on daily activities which are no longer useful to man. According Environment and Development in 1987, Our Common to [7], it can be defined as any substance be it solid, liquid or Future and its political relevance was established at the Rio gaseous, that remains a residue or an incidental by-product of Earth Summit in 1992 [2]. Since then, sustainability had the processing of the substance and for which no use can be been both a local and global discourse. Individuals, corporate found for the organism or the system that produces it. The organizations, government and non-governmental problem of waste management has been categorized in to organizations have taken a lot of sustainability initiatives and two parts: collection and disposal [8]. The importance of policies to make our environment, economy and social life proper waste management, especially waste disposal cannot more sustainable. Schools across the globe are introducing be overemphasized because of the individual and communal the concept of Sustainability in their curricular to teach the health hazards associated with poor waste disposal. upcoming generation its relevance and to make them drivers of sustainability in the various responsibilities they find B. Challenges in Solid Waste Management themselves in the future [3]. Solid waste management is a key sector that poses Some of the challenges in waste disposal include sustainability threat to our society. Waste collection and inadequate number of waste disposal infrastructure, waste disposal are the two components in waste infrequent collection due to lack of payment for waste management. Waste management especially in disposal services and scarce access in remote areas.[9] Lot municipalities is a major challenge to people and the of litters can be found by road sides and in some public government. Despite the challenges of waste management places around the globe especially in urban areas. Waste there also lots of prospects. The role of ICT in waste disposal infrastructure like waste bins and dumpsters are not management is gaining prominence and this paper intends to provided at strategic locations for easy waste disposal. This explore deeper into that. makes individuals to throw their litters indiscriminately in This paper advocates the use of ICT-based framework for public places. In situations where governments make monitoring and managing waste disposal in Nigeria. This available such waste disposal infrastructure, the problem of framework includes the interactions of technological infrequent or in some cases lack of collection of the waste components and services like Geographic Information occurs because of ineffective waste disposal communication Systems (GIS), Internet of Things (IOT), Machine to processes. According to [10], communication transfer Machine Technology (M2M) and GPS (Geographic between the different stakeholders is of high importance in 146 International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications (ICTA 2016) order to get a well functioning waste management system in innovative solutions in addressing our economic, societal the cities in developing countries .Thus, there is a need to and environmental challenges. find sustainable solutions to the challenges facing waste disposal. C. Prospects in Solid Waste Management A lot of prospects in waste management abound in the literature. Amongst them are involving communities in decision making about waste disposal. A typical instance is the employment of machileros; people with backpacks collecting waste from house to house and thereby employing labour. Another prospect is the increase in the provision of the waste disposal infrastructure including the dust bins, the giant roll-in containers at strategic positions in societies and campuses. Those containers can as well be monitored technologically (georeferencing) using GPS or other GIS Figure 2. “Waste to Wealth” local women weaving, AUN representative systems [9]. selling finished products at crafts fair in Abuja. Source: AUN sustainability Educational campaign is not left out in the prospects of report 2014 solid waste management. Some societies are developing educational programs on the needs and how to manage waste II. SMART SYSTEMS properly for schools and even neighborhoods. Typical instance is the student environmental club at American Smart systems incorporate functions of sensing, University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola that organizes litter actuation, and control in order to describe and analyze a campaign on the campus and the neighboring environments situation, and make decisions based on the available data in a to clean up the litters and demonstrate good waste disposal predictive or adaptive manner, thereby performing smart habits [11]. This is shown in Figure 1 below. actions [11]. In healthcare sector, smart systems like artificial organs are used to save lives and in the transport sector, smart systems like auto-pilot have been used to reduce traffic accidents. Smart applications have also been found useful in waste management. Waste management companies like Enevo [12] have created innovative IT solutions for collection and disposal of waste. A Trash receptacles use smart wireless sensors to generate fill level data from waste containers. The proprietary dumpster can “talk” to the office of waste collection when it is filled up thereby saving cost and time of trips made by waste collectors. Figure 3 below illustrates the waste container fitted with trash receptacle .These sensors can also help the company forecast dumpster filling patterns. Smart applications can also be used in waste reduction by using the right Machine to Machine (M2M) applications that may help in asset and material tracking. The makers of smart refrigerators may use this technology to alert the user on Figure 1. Litter campaign in progress by AUN student environmental foods that are about spoiling and shortage of necessary items club (Source: AUN sustainability report 2014) in the fridge [13]. Recycling is also an important aspect in waste management given that it will reduce the volume of waste III. ICT-BASED WASTE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK going into the landfills every day. It also reduces the hazards The ICT-Based Waste Management Framework is a caused by dumping non-biogradable waste in the landfills. framework that employs the tools of ICT in monitoring and Recycling thus reduces the environmental impact of the managing waste from the point of creation (house hold waste at the same improves the sustainability of waste waste) all the way to the point of final disposal either to the management [9]. American University of Nigeria in Yola landfill for organic waste or to the recycling centre for plastic (AUN) introduced an initiative named “waste to wealth” wastes. (illustrated in Figure 2) that involves local women weaving The framework starts from the household point of view. yarn from plastic bags. The polluting bags were transformed There is a code which households can dial through the into iPad cases, tote bags and etc, and sold through AUN to mobile phone to alert and request the Waste Management generate income for the women [10]. Office (WMO) of the need to dispose their waste. The code These innovations are a welcomed developments and it is is analogous to using *737*2*phone number# to top up presumed that Information Technology (IT) can play a credit in phone lines when using GTBank. In this scenario, a greater role in supporting the innovations. Smart systems are small token of money is expected to be charged from the examples of IT applications that are deployed to give household for the waste disposal services. 147 International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications (ICTA 2016) Figure 3. Enevo proprietary dumpster reporting on its current state to the waste collection office (Source: www.enevo.com) Figure 4. Interactions between entities in the ICT-based framework for waste management On receiving the alert/request from various households, and locations of the machileros and it is based on that the WMO determines the identity and location of each application software, the WMO will assign the machileros to request and based on that, assigns a particular waste collector the appropriate household based on their distance to the (machileros) to a particular household to collect the waste. households. The whole framework is illustrated in Figure 4. The machileros are registered adhoc staffs of the waste In the case where request are coming from multiple management office. The WMO have record of the addresses households that are close to each other, a single machilero 148 International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications (ICTA 2016) would be assigned to those number of households for optimization reasons. Figure 5 illustrates this scenario whereby all requests coming to the WMO are from close houses in the same estate hence a single machilero is assigned to serve all the three houses because of their proximity. Smart Dumpster The waste collected by the machileros is dumped in the Hello I am waste bin 447 in Gidan Mangoro, nearest roll-on or dumpsters preferable a street/community I am 96% full dumpster. These dumpsters have two compartments; one for Hello I am waste bin organic waste and the other for plastic waste. The machileros 448 in NECO I am 93% full ensure that the waste are sorted into plastic or otherwise and Waste Management Office Smart Dumpster dump them appropriately in to the dumpster. The dumpsters Hello I am waste bin 449 in Talba Estate, I are fitted with trash receptacles that alert the WMO of their am 56% full weight or volume. This is a technology that helps the WMO to smartly determine when trashcan/dumpster is filled up and Dispose bin 447, 448, 449 ready for collection. Based on the location of dumpsters that are filled up, the Smart Dumpster application software in the WMO will assign appropriate private waste carriers to empty the dumpsters into the land fill or to the recycling centre. The private waste carriers are similar to the machileros but have vehicles (dumpers) to empty roll-ons/dumpsters in a street or neighborhood instead of households. With their records at the WMO, waste carriers will be assigned dumpsters that are closer to their Private Waste Carriers at Gidan locations or even to multiple dumpsters if there are some Mangoro filled ones in the same locality. This is illustareted in Figure 6. Organic waste Plastic waste #345*2 dSA House No 4 Talba Housing Estste Waste Management Office Bin x Recycling Centre LANDFILL Dispose bin x, y #345*2 and Z Figure 6. Optimization software assigning dumpers based on their distance from request #345*2 Machileros at Talba Housing House No 5 Talba Housing Estate Bin y IV. MERITS OF THE FRAMEWORK A lot of benefits can be outlined from this ICT-based Dispose waste framework and they include but not limited to the following:  Effective Communication Process in waste House No 7 Talba Housing Estate management. Among the challenges of waste Bin Z management is the communication process between the different stakeholders,  Employment opportunities for machileros and private waste collectors: With persistent rise in the unemployment figures in Nigeria, this model will Smart Dumpster AT Talba provide employment for private waste collectors and Housing the machileros. Figure 5. WMO (Optimization software) assigning machileros based on  Structured and Organized Framework will their distance from request eliminate the challenges of going from house to house to collect money for waste disposal services, The figure shows filled smarts dumpsters from three rather people pay instantly through the request they different but close localities reporting to the WMO. Because make to the waste management office. It is Pay per of the proximity of the three dumpsters, a single private service hence eliminates the problem of payment waste collector is assigned to empty all of them. Upon delays and lack of payment. receiving the message from WMO, the private waste collectors will empty the assigned roll-on to the landfill V. CONCLUSION or/and to the recycling centre as the case may be. In either case the machileros and the private waste collectors will The present way of waste management especially in report to the WMO for their remunerations. Nigeria is not sustainable. Challenges arise either from the 149 International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications (ICTA 2016) government, from households or from waste management [4] http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/ICT-information-and- contractors that hinders the smooth running of the process. communications-technology-or-technologies retrieved 19th March, 2015 This paper has proposed an ICT-based framework that can [5] A. M. Townsend, "Smart cities: big data, civic hackers, and the quest automate and make transparent each of the processes in for a new utopia". 2013, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. waste disposal and hence eliminating much of the backlogs [6] ICT Facts and Figures https://www.itu.int/en/ITU- as well as creating benefits that include employment D/Statistics/Documents/facts/ICTFactsFigures2015.pdf retrieved 19th opportunities, transparent and effective processes. 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