At the end of the day, it is about garbage collection... is it not?

Filled up garbage bins with garbage overflowing out of the bins and all around the bins is a very common sight in many a cities in India. Normally, the garbage is collected by the municipals or civic authorities once a day. That is how our solid waste management systems work and there is no doubt that the system needs a marked improvement and also need the system to become radically efficient and effective and most importantly sustainable and should be adoptable.

Now, most methods of solid waste disposal look at methods as to what to do with the garbage AFTER it is collected, be it - landfill or incineration or composting or even pyrolysis. I believe that the start of all of this should be - effective, efficient and adoptable garbage collection and that is were technology can play an important role.

Recently, the Prime Minister of India has launched the "Swachh Bharat Abhiyan" to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country. If this campaign has to become successful, we need solutions that are different than the traditional methodologies on garbage collection and its disposal already deployed, perhaps the traditional methodologies need to be tweaked a little to become efficient, effective, sustainable.

Perhaps, a solution from a technology perspective could be - use of a host of technologies by making a few changes on the garbage collection trucks - firstly, add a simple standard GSM / GPS tracker to track and manage the garbage collection trucks route on a standard digital map (could be done using Google Maps API) at a central command / control centre; secondly, fit the garbage trucks with weight sensors to monitor the weight of the garbage collected by each truck and lastly, have a radio communication system (similar to the likes of ones used by private taxi service providers) installed on each garbage truck.  The next thing to do - fit anintelligent sensor on each garbage bin to make it a "smart" garbage bin - using the intelligent sensor the municipal or civic authorities can be alerted when the garbage bin is, say 85%. filled so that the garbage trucks routes can be optimized to collect the "filled" garbage bins on priority. This will ensure that people do not have to litter and throw their garbage outside the garbage bin just because the garbage bin is full and overflowing. The "smart" garbage bin could be fitted the same simple standard GSM / GPS tracker to "automatically communicate" with the nearest garbage collection truck for a prompt and early collection and emptying of the "filled" garbage bin. 

I believe it is a simple solution for effective and efficient garbage collection without complicating the system too much and without having to train the existing municipal or civic staff that operate the garbage trucks.

To make it an absolute success, there is one thing that the municipal or civic authorities need to do and that is - define a fixed compensation for the staff operating on the garbage trucks for a minimum quantities of garbage collected and incentivize them for any additional quantities of garbage collected by them. 

The above system can be further strengthened by deploying weighbridge solutions at the garbage collection yards.

And remember... it is all - "Made in India"...