Title: Simple low cost online monitoring system for municipal waste collection authority of under developing countries

Authors: Mahbubul Alam

Addresses: Mazeda Technologies, Dhaka 1216, Bangladesh

Abstract: The municipal authority faces huge challenges to manage municipal solid waste (MSW). Increasing population, low budget and conventional approach make this problem more acute. Normally trucks collect the MSW and transfer those in pre-specified locations, but all the jobs are not monitored and managed effectively. It is very important to monitor the trucks and record the information related to the collecting time and area and response quickly to city dweller's request. But the authority does not have enough budgets to implement costly system to accelerate quality services. A low cost system prototype has been developed. RFID, SMS and Web (RSW) are embedded to develop this robust system. RFID receives data from tag without any physical touch, SMS provide low cost communication and Web provides ubiquity. For automation and portability PIC micro-controller has been used. The prototype has shown satisfactory performance in laboratory as well as in practical field.

Keywords: e-monitoring; electronic monitoring; RFID; radio frequency identification; SMS; short message service; microcontrollers; GPRS; general packet radio service; GSM; global system for mobile; WWW; world wide web; low cost monitoring; online monitoring; municipal waste collection; developing countries; municipal solid waste; MSW; solid waste management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEG.2014.065078

International Journal of Electronic Governance, 2014 Vol.7 No.1, pp.72 - 80

Received: 08 Jun 2013
Accepted: 16 Apr 2014
Published online: 06 Feb 2015 *

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