Development of the Metal and Non-Metal Waste Sorting System Design by using an Arduino Uno
Rosnani Affandi1*, Asiah Ab Wahid1, Haziq Haikal Jaafar1
1 Jabatan Kejuruteraan Elektrik, Politeknik Melaka, No.2 Jln PPM 10, Plaza Pandan Malim, 75250 Melaka
*Corresponding Author: [email protected]
Received: 30 March 2023 | Accepted: 15 May 2023 | Published: 1 June 2023 DOI:https://doi.org/10.55057/ijarti.2023.5.2.2
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Abstract: A material is waste if it has been utilised and no longer desired. Waste needs to be appropriately managed and disposed of. However, most of the waste is not effectively managed and disposed of. As a result, it has brought up certain difficulties, such as environmental pollution, which can affect human health. Every year, more waste is produced around the world, and not all parties are aware of the importance of maintaining environmental cleanliness by making solid waste segregation a daily practise. In this regard, several initiatives have been taken by the government, such as introducing various campaigns towards a better environment, such as the 3R concept (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) as well as the solid waste separation campaign. This paper presents the design and development process of a waste sorting system that can separate metal and non-metal materials by using an Arduino UNO.
The benefit of this system is that it has a notification system that may alert the person or entity in charge when the trash in the bins is full. The system's design and development go through four major phases. Phase 1 is the design of the circuit, Phase 2 is the development of the Arduino Uno coding and simulation; Phase 3 is the assembly, testing, and prototype development; and Phase 4 is the results analysis. This system is a complete success. When detecting metal and non-metal materials, all three input components—the proximity sensor, the IR sensor, and the ultrasonic sensor are fully functional. The servo motor will move the non-metal material to the right side of the bin if the IR sensor detects non-metal material, and if the inductive proximity sensor detects metal material, the servo motor will move the metal material to the left side of the bin, ensuring that waste is separated properly.
Keywords: Trash Sorting System, IR sensor, Proximity sensor, Arduino Uno. Trash Sorting System, IR sensor, Proximity sensor, Arduino Uno
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1. Introduction
The Collins Dictionary defines waste as objects that have been used but are no longer desirable, such as used paper, empty tins, bottles, and plastics, as well as food waste. The National Solid Rubbish Management Department estimates that Malaysians generated about 25,000 tonnes of waste daily in 2019. A growing population will also indirectly increase the amount of waste created, according to (Wulandari, 2020) and (Kurniaty Yulia, 2016). According to (https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php, 2022), the population of Malaysia will increase by 32,698.7 people, or 1.3%, from 31,633.5 in 2016. In accordance with projections made by Wulandari for 2020, the amount of rubbish produced will increase by nearly 2% annually, amounting to about 13.5 million tonnes (Wulandari, 2020). In 2021, an enormous amount of solid waste will be produced—38,427 metric tonnes per day and by the end of 2022, it is
estimated that 14 million metric tonnes of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) will be collected annually.
Over 90% of the annual household garbage generated in Malaysia is disposed of in landfills, according to the national report (JPSPN, 2021). In the meanwhile, a tremendous amount of rubbish is still being disposed of there. At the same time, Malaysia's output of solid waste has surpassed the study's recommended daily pace of 30,000 metric tonnes. Due to the potential for biological and physiochemical issues for the environment, it is important to avoid waste from being thrown into landfills (Nur Thoyib, 2016). Therefore, there is an urgent necessity to deal with these expanding issues. The worst part is that Malaysia's annual garbage disposal costs have risen to RM 2.2 million (Harnani Hassan, 2018) (Negara, 2012). With that, proper municipal solid waste management must be introduced and implemented to assure that the amount of solid waste in landfills can be reduced (Abdullah, 2018). The solid waste separation campaign was launched by the Malaysian government in September 2015 (Sustainability, 2012), and the campaign requires all premises to separate the solid waste at the source. With that, hopefully it can help reduce the pollution caused by waste and the waste produced in landfills. However, until today, awareness of waste separation is still low (Fitriyah Razali, 2019). The major cause is due to the lack of solid waste separation practise among Malaysians.
Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to outline the design and development of a trash sorting system circuit that uses an Arduino UNO to separate metal and non-metal items. The notification system, which can alert the party or person in charge if the trash within the bin is full, is one benefit of this method.
2. Literature Review
Basically, a few initiatives have been developed by innovators all over the world in order to help in garbage segregation and to lessen the effects of waste that is not properly managed or disposed of. Russell created the first automatic sorter machine in 2013 with the goal of classifying waste into several groups to make waste management simpler and more effective (Russel, 2013). Additionally, there is a mechanism available for getting rid of medical waste (Mallet, 2008; Benson, 2013). The system's drawback is that if the garbage container is full, it may spill whatever is inside outside. This can lead to another issue. As a result of the issue, other initiatives utilising IOT technologies have been developed by (Kumar, 2016) (Amit Kumar Sinha, 2019).
Main Components for Waste Sorting System
Main components for waste sorting system divided into three, Microcontroller, input devices and output devices. Basically, there are a few types of microcontrollers that usually used to develop this system, such as PIC, ARM, or 8051 microcontrollers. However, the Arduino Uno is simple, easy to use, and can run on Windows, Linux operating systems. Most microcontroller systems are limited to Windows. Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board based on the AT Mega 328 with 20 digital input/output a 16 MHz resonator, a USB connection, a power jack, an in-circuit system programming (ICSP) header, and a reset button. The input voltage is 5 V DC, and the output voltage is 5V/3.3V.
Figure 1: Arduino Uno
For the input devices, Inductive proximity sensor, IR sensor, and ultrasonic sensor are three input components used in this project. The inductive proximity sensor (Refer figure 2) is a non- contact electronic proximity sensor. It is used for positioning and detection of metal objects.
The sensing range of an inductive switch is dependent on the type of metal being detected. The detection distance is around 8mm. It uses 12V supply voltage. In this project, 12V adapter were used because Arduino UNO uses only 5V voltage. The current output is 300mA. Meanwhile, the IR sensor (Refer Figure 3) is an infrared sensor that is used to sense certain characteristics of its surroundings. It does this by either emitting or detecting infrared radiation. In this project, IR sensors were used to detect plastic or non-metal material. An ultrasonic sensor (Refer Figure 4) is a sensor that can measure the distance of an object by using ultrasonic sound waves. An ultrasonic sensor uses a transducer to send and receive ultrasonic pulses that relay back information about an object's proximity. The working voltage is 5V (DC), the sensor angle is not more than 15 degrees, and the detection distance is from 2cm to 450cm. This sensor is used as a level detector for waste inside the bin.
Figure 2: Inductive Proximity Sensor Figure 3 : IR Sensor Figure 4 : Ultrasonic Sensor
There are two output devices used in this project. The components are the MG995 servo motor (Figure 5) and the node MCU (Figure 6). A servo motor is a digital metal gear high-torque servo for aeroplanes, helicopters, Remote Control (RC)-cars from 10 to 6th scale, monsters, and many other RC models. This servo can have a 180-degree rotation for robotics applications.
Meanwhile, the Node MCU has open-source firmware. It includes firmware that runs on the ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC from Espressif Systems, and hardware that is based on the ESP-12 module. The firmware uses the Lua scripting language.
Figure 5: Servo Motor Figure 6 : Node MCU
3. Methodology
Using the Arduino UNO, a waste sorting system circuit was designed and developed using four major phases to separate metal and non-metal debris. The phases are as follows: Phase 1 is circuit design; Phase 2 is developed Arduino Uno coding and simulation; Phase 3 is assembly;
Phase 4 is circuit testing and prototype development (see Table 1).
Table 1: Four major phases to separate metal and non-metal debris
Phase 1 – Circuit Design
In this phase, the main controller board used in this project is the Arduino Uno. Then a circuit for a metal and non-metal sorting system is designed by using the selected components that have been mentioned in the previous section (Refer Figure 7).
Figure 7: Diagram for trash sorting system using Arduino Uno
PHASE 1 (Circuit Design)
PHASE 2 (Development of Arduino Uno coding
& simulation)
PHASE 3 (Assemble, circuit testing & Prototype
Development)
PHASE 4 (Results Analysis) Coding & Simulation
1. Develop arduino uno coding
2. simulation 3. Soldering Selecting suitable
components and circuit 1. Arduino Uno 2. Node MCU 3. Blink
4. Input & Output components
Assemble & circuit testing 1. Assemble of circuits 2. Testing the circuit 3. Develop protype
Result Analysis 1. Coding 2. Input and Output
components function
Phase 2 – Developed Arduino Uno coding & simulation.
Figure 8: Waste sorting system Flow Chart
Phase 3 – Assemble, circuit Testing & Prototype Development
In this phase, the circuit and components are assembled as shown in Figure 11. After the circuit, components, and coding function well, the prototype is developed.
Figure 10: Ultrasonic sensor and Node MCU Coding Figure 9: IR sensor, Proximity Sensor and
Servo Motor coding
Figure 11: Overall circuit for waste sorting system
Meanwhile, to realise that the project is ready to use completely with safety characteristics, a comprehensive plan has been taken. A step-by-step procedure is followed, and the project is completed on time. This includes collecting data such as weight and type of waste, the size of the metal and non-metal sorting system bin prototype, designing the mechanical part, circuit testing, and verification. The design controller uses a closed-loop system with Arduino as the main controller. For the prototype, it uses wood and acrylic with a 2-foot height, 2-foot length, and 1 foot width. With two separate parts for separating the metal and non-metal waste.
4. Circuit Simulation and Results Analysis
This project has two main coding’s. The first is the instruction used to move the servo motor using IR and an inductive proximity sensor. Meanwhile, the second instruction is used for sending the notification to the users to tell them that the trash can is full.
Figure 12: Simulation result show the movement of Servo motor when detected non-metal material
Figure 13: Simulation result show the movement of Servo motor when detected metal material
Meanwhile, in this project, the Tinkercad website was used for simulating the circuit. By referring to figures 12 and 13, the servo motor gear will move when the ultrasonic sensor detects material. This means that, if the IR sensor detects a non-metal material, the servo motor will move to the non-metal side of the bin, and if the inductive proximity sensor detects a metal material, the servo motor will move to the metal side of the bin.
Circuit Operation Result
moves the servo motor in the degree and direction specified in the coding. IR sensors are used to detect non-metal objects. Metal materials are found using inductive proximity sensors, meanwhile. The sensor would transmit data to the Arduino UNO and operate the servo motor in the predetermined degree and direction if it identified metal particles.
An ultrasonic sensor is used to detect if the waste inside the bin is full. If the bin is full according to the range that has been set between the waste and the sensor, the signal will be sent to the main controller and to the node MCU via the BLYNK application on the mobile phone to tell the user that the bin is full. Table 2 shows the results for the project.
Table 2: Result operation of the project
INPUT TYPE OF WASTE OUTPUT
Non metal Metal Servo Motor Node MCU
IR sensor Detected
(Figure 13)
- ON -
Inductive proximity sensor
- Detected
(Figure 14)
ON -
Ultrasonic sensor Full Full - Send notification via
BLYNK application
Figure 14: Non-metal material detected by IR sensor Figure 15: Metal material detected by IR sensor
5. Conclusion and Recommendations
The circuit, components, and coding are completely successful. By designing and developing this circuit system, hopefully it will allow for the improvement of continuous waste sorting behavior in any waste collection system that includes sorting waste at the source. Another advantage of this project is that it will send a notification to users to tell them that their trash bin is full, so the cleaning work can be done faster. Therefore, hopefully this project can help reduce the pollution caused by waste and benefit the environment and human health.
Acknowledgement
This study was supported by Jabatan Kejuruteraan Elektrik and Unit Penyelidikan, Inovasi &
Komersilan (UPIK) Politeknik Melaka. We are thankful to the Director of Politeknik Melaka, and to all UPIK staff who provided expertise that greatly assisted the study.
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