4 Smart cities and communities
4.4 Smart waste management

The aim of Smart waste management is to reduce the amount of time and energy required to provide waste management services using smart technologies. One big problem that public services and waste management companies are faced is that they need to physically go to the dumpster to check trash levels. Because of this, trucks often visit containers that do not need emptying, which wastes both time and fuel. Route optimization solves this problem only partially. With the rise of the Internet of Things, smart sensors and sensor-level M2M technology the optimisation of routes can make significant step forward. The garbage receptacles can “talk” to the waste management company and tell them whether the container is at full capacity, when it needs to be emptied, what temperature the container is at, etc., allowing the company to work more efficiently and cut unnecessary costs. Additionally, the sensors can help the company to forecast when a dumpster will be full, allowing them to plan ahead future routes.

Smart technologies can also decrease amount of waste indirectly. E.g. in the U.S., consumers waste about 30%, or 133 billion pounds of food each year [28]. This could be dramatically reduced with the asset and material tracking. Using the right IoT technology, a store could better track exact quantities of the food they sell, cut back on waste, and reduce spoilage. From a consumer perspective, this technology can be extended into home e.g. using smart refrigerators which could alert the consumers when their food is going to spoil, hinting to consume it before it goes bad.