Application of Smart Waste Management System : Case Study for Queen II Hospital, Maseru Lesotho

Many countries desire to have a clean and healthy environment hence the need for effective and

efficient Management of trash Bins. But for many years, the traditional way of collection and

removal of trash has not proved to be effective. There are number of problems encountered with

the usage of the traditional way of collecting trash in hospital and Healthcare Centers. These

problems include among others: trash overflow, land and air pollution and unclean and unhealthy

environment.

The main objective of these paper is to overcome all these unfavorable conditions above by

mitigate the waste that is always found scattered all over the place. The system uses Arduino to

excel communication. Smart Trash Bin (STB) is a Trash bin are interfaced with an ultrasonic

sensor which is meant to measure the distance of trash in the bin to the required level. Arduino

microcontrollers connected to ultrasonic sensor send data directly in to excel using “PLX-DAQ, a

Parallax microcontroller data acquisition add-on tool for Microsoft Excel” (Parallax Inc , 2019).

The status of the bins is monitored through Arduino to excel communication, and provides real time automated information to the control Center of the trash collection company. In addition to

this Arduino to excel communication, graphs, charts and diagrams for reports are generated

automatically to the Lesotho Millennium Development Agency and private companies that are the

hired through LMDA for record keeping and further to display and store the information meant

for additional investigations and improvements.

Collection and removal of trash is done in timely manner, truck drivers are able to have scheduled

work and planned route. This system is meant to make waste management, more efficient and

effective, less costly and it saves time. The advantage of the system to other smart waste

management’s systems is that the system uses excel to receive real-time data, there is no need for

internet usage which means extra savings. Without internet usage all problems associated with

internet usage are avoided.