How technology is revolutionizing waste management?
Today, we can use tech for almost everything- including taking out the trash. With smart waste management technology, not only businesses, but individuals too are able to track the trash more closely and easily than ever before. Not only can smart waste management systems help us to reduce the costs, but they can also help reduce the environmental impact which believe it or nor is challenging than ever.
That said, America alone is producing roughly 250 million tons of trash every year, where only 34% of it is being recycled. There are several other states that expose shocking trash tendencies despite environmental awareness. This complexity in trash management has never been that extreme before, a reason why today this industry requires nearly half a million people who undertake this tremendous take of disposing of at least 4.4 pounds of waste for every single American day in and day out.
To counteract the negative impact of landfill waste and overcome these aching challenges, the waste management industry is reshaping strategies and revamping waste disposal and handling systems for even enhanced environmental protection and superior efficiency.
Turning Waste into Energy
One exciting innovation coming to the waste management industry is the ability to turn waste into genuine power. Instead of polluting in a wide range of landfills, certain types of waste can actually be converted into energy. How? With a little help from a new type of machinery called “digesters” , waste, together with biogas it produces, can be easily turned into energy that can be used on site. This technology has no limits when it comes to “digesting” as it can be used on a variety of waste, including animal waste, food, agricultural leftovers and more.
Another new technology used to convert waste into speciality products is thermal conversion. It proves that it takes some indications from natural geothermal processes that use pressure and heat to convert useless materials into useful products. Thermal conversion could be used to turn waste into fertilizers, chemicals, oils and other things that could give your waste another use.
As you’ve probably heard, some landfill gas can even be transformed into energy. This sort of gas would typically be flared or released, but thanks to these new technologies, it can be converted into energy. Microturbine, bioreactors technology and even fuel cells can finally be used to do something useful with waste.
Advances in Route Efficiency
Although it does not sound as cool as creating energy from waste or using plasma lasers, some technology has helped companies involved in the waste handling process to optimize routes and maximize efficiency. Advanced software has made it possible to plan out routes that can easily and effectively guide waste collecting trucks. These technologies not only make it easier to collect recycling materials and the waste that needs to be collected, but it also makes the collection process more fuel-efficient while reducing energy usage.
Anaerobic Digestion
As you probably know, there are two major issues concerning us today: fuel and waste. Contrary to what you might have heard, the landfill will not sustain us forever and the worry about the greenhouse gases has sparked the need to find a solution for both of these problems. This is why balers and compactors, such as those from Miltek, are so important for minimising waste.
With anaerobic digestion, scientists have found one easy answer for both of these concerns. In fact, the environmentalist experts speak about this process as being potentially one of the best technologies developed by the waste management sector in the last year. This new process visualizes the waste issue being crushed by the microorganism in an oxygen-less environment. With that in mind, this new process in an expansion of earlier methods used to create compost from organic waste.
Today, thanks to technological and scientific advancements altogether, organized waste can be tackled with anaerobic digestion while at the same time it can offer gas-based energy. Moreover, as we will always create organic waste too, the kind of energy the anaerobic digestion generates is classified as renewable energy.
Downside? The only downside to this technology are the costs of production. Why? It’s expensive because, in order for anaerobic digestion to work on a huge scale, a great investment in large tanks and sand process vessels are necessary.
Monitor Waste with Ultrasonic Trash Sensor
Waste monitoring is now available thanks to the ultrasonic technologies. What are they? Monitor Waste Sensors is an ultrasonic trash sensor that lets you know when your trash container is full. Working together with an online platform, this new technology allows you to monitor the volume of your container from anywhere, offering in-depth analytics to help businesses to track their waste. That said, having the complete visibility of your trash container can minimize the costs that come with overcrowding a dumpster.
Image-based trash sensors
This new exciting technology provides image-based scan sensors that can automatically monitor the content and fullness. Not only that, but these devices feature GPS tracking to help optimize fuel efficiency and driver routes along with slope monitoring, which records every time a trash can has been picked up or put down.
It allows roll-off transporters to manage container inventory, accept order through automated text messages and build more in-depth routes. While for the front-load transporter, this software automatically determines which trash container requires service every day, then appoints routes and consistently distributes jobs to drivers.
Let your Trash Sort Itself with automatic compressors
Smart waste containers today can automatically recognize, sort and compress waste using sensors, camera and A.I. Once a certain material has been identified after its colour and shape, it is distributed into the fitting bin within the container – paper, plastic or glass. Next, the waste is compressed so the whole volume can be up to vide time less. If it’s full, this smart sorting waste bin will automatically notify your trash collection business.
With that in mind, smart waste containers not only resolve the problem of improper waste sorting, but it can also track and transmit data about the collected waste to an integrated data cloud.
