As businesses increasingly look to operate in a more sustainable manner, reducing waste has become a common goal today. However, as any facility manager will know, traditional waste management practices are far from efficient. Thankfully, with the advent of the Internet of Things, this is about to change.
Smart waste management powered by IoT technology installs wireless sensors on bins to measure data including but not limited to fill level, temperature and humidity. This data is automatically sent to a remote server where it is analyzed and visualized to help improve a business’s waste management decisions.
Why businesses need smart waste solutions
Smart waste management has long been a concern for government agencies, but its benefits and applicability to businesses are equally far-reaching. It helps solve the same ongoing challenge: trash removal plans are not aligned with actual demand. In industrial and commercial facilities, waste generation rates vary daily, and often when garbage trucks arrive, bins are not even half full. Needless to say, this results in increased costs and wasted resources, not to mention the carbon emissions caused by too many garbage truck trips. In other cases, bins may fill up and overflow before the garbage collection truck arrives, resulting in an unsanitary situation.
These problems can be solved by embedding IoT sensors on trash cans. By knowing the current fill level of each bin, businesses can better predict when they will need to be emptied. In addition to this, temperature and humidity data also reveal useful insights into microbial activity within individual bins. With all this data, companies can optimize recycling programs for each type of waste to increase efficiency, reduce transportation costs and reduce environmental footprints. At the same time, they can make informed decisions about bin capacity and placement to suit actual demand and avoid unnecessary overfilling.
Accelerate return on investment with next-generation IoT connectivity
Before the advent of IoT, there was little innovation in corporate waste management, simply because the cost-effectiveness was not justified. The use of M2M communications was once limited to electronic devices and high-value mission-critical assets due to a lack of viable network connectivity options, making it easy for the capital investment and operating expenses of such a solution to exceed the value it would deliver.
Today, as sensor technology advances in reducing costs and improving accuracy, new IoT technologies like low-power wide area networks (LPWANs) are paving the way to build powerful and affordable wireless infrastructure and connect at an unprecedented scale. Distributed assets. LPWAN’s power and cost-optimized design makes it ideal for low-value items such as dumpsters to unlock insights previously inaccessible due to cost constraints.
What’s more, truly universal LPWAN technology enables companies to maximize their IoT infrastructure by handling a wide variety of use cases simultaneously. Rather than requiring a single, standalone network for waste management, such a solution can seamlessly scale based on the needs of connected devices, integrating numerous smart building applications into a unified wireless infrastructure. In this way, companies can significantly reduce upfront investment and benefit from an integrated approach to construction management, resulting in faster return on investment.
In summary, while smart waste solutions are mostly associated with smart city frameworks, their value to private stakeholders is equally considerable. Through innovative IoT technology, businesses can leverage effective waste management to improve efficiency and sustainable facility operations without spending a fortune.