Globally, the industrial sector generates more than 7.6 billion tons of waste every year. Because industrial waste disposal is often complex and hazardous, the cost of recycling all of this industrial waste exceeds $9 trillion annually. Failure to address this issue could result in environmental damage, direct economic losses, and substantial regulatory fines.
What is Industrial Waste?
Industrial waste is any material resulting from an industrial process that may be unwanted, hazardous, leftover, or leftover from a production process. These wastes include secondary, toxic/chemical and solid waste. However, there is no doubt that solid waste represents the most important part of industrial waste.
There are a series of serious imbalances in this industry. For example, while as much as 75% of the world's industrial waste can be recycled, less than 30% is actually recycled.
In part, this is because companies view recycling as just another expense that is included in operating expenses, which greatly inhibits the enthusiasm for adopting this technology. Fortunately, with the advent of disruptive technologies, some changes are taking place. For example, Internet of Things (IoT) technologies have proven that they have the ability to optimize production, reducing the overall output of waste in the first place.
How can IoT help industrial waste management?
It is worth noting that technological advances are a key part of the waste problem we now face in industrial processes. Fortunately, technological advancements also provide innovative solutions that can help us meet these challenges as they arise. IoT is revolutionizing the game for industrial waste management best practices.
First, through IoT services and solutions, we can greatly increase the efficiency of recycling and waste collection. These technologies allow us to automate, optimize, and understand the entire waste management process differently. This means that businesses have an incentive to deploy these technologies because they can use them to generate less waste and waste less money.
There are many ways to solve this problem. However, the main advantage of IoT is the ability to collect large amounts of data and update it in real time based on input from a large number of cost-effective distributed sensors. These cheap sensors, recording and monitoring devices send all the data to the cloud for storage and inspection. AI models can then analyze the data and draw conclusions that generate actionable insights.
As a series of case studies, we will explore how companies in the food, agriculture, transport and energy sectors are implementing smart management of their waste streams.
Smart waste solutions for the food industry
In the context of the food industry, smart waste management means:
- Optimize the number and routing of truck trips.
- Reduce carbon emissions.
- financial savings.
- Enhancement of public image.
About 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted every year during food production and distribution. What's really shocking is that this waste accounts for about 33% of all the food we produce for people to consume. Due to the prevalence of landfills, improperly disposed of food and food waste often end up in these landfills. This process means expensive pickup routes and further carbon emissions.
This unnecessary waste is an inefficient use of fees, budgets, landfill taxes, and other costs. As a result, many companies have started to leverage IoT technology by combining apps, GPS systems, user portals, and distributed smart sensors. This approach allows them to reduce and simplify waste collection and storage systems. For example, inexpensive distributed sensors can notify automated management systems when containers reach capacity. This enables large organizations to make better decisions about scheduling pickups and optimizing pickup routes.
Let's take a look at how this affects a household name. In 2018, Enevo helped McDonald's reduce waste management costs by 12% and increase recycling diversion by 50%. Enevo has installed sensors in seven bins across its restaurants in Nottingham to reduce waste inefficiencies and track recycling diversions. Now, McDonald's can accurately track recycling rates and learn more about where waste goes after it leaves the restaurant. UART-модуль
Food poses a particular challenge in the form of methane emissions. By using compost effectively, businesses can reduce waste disposal bills and put a cap on these emissions. Since most food waste is compostable, using a pH sensor can also track the decaying process of organic waste in waste containers.
Smart Solutions for Agricultural Waste
In agriculture, IoT waste management helps businesses:
- Improve efficiency.
- Promote sustainable development.
- Improve the green image.
- cut costs.
- Track and improve waste recycling.
The total production of agricultural waste is about 998 million tons per year. This is especially true for farming, since nearly every agricultural activity produces by-products, from planting to bagging. Another characteristic of the agricultural waste landscape is the type of waste. These wastes include hazardous agricultural waste, general animal waste, crop waste and food waste.
One of the most worrisome forms of agricultural waste is the potential contamination of groundwater from pesticides used to protect crops from dangerous insects and rodents. Other types of waste generated by mills, packaging, and transportation exacerbate the problem.
IoT on farms plays a key role in addressing these issues, first and foremost helping to facilitate proper waste disposal and reduce waste generation. Agricultural companies can also use drones to check soil nutrient levels. This advantage spells out exactly how much fertilizer is needed to promote adequate plant growth. Combined, these technologies help track each stage of the growing cycle, apply the right fertilizers and pesticides at the appropriate stage, and reduce runoff. This will save efficiency, cost and the environment.
When fitted with sensors and actuators, agricultural waste bins can transform a process that used to be dominated by humans into an automated one. The same technology can cost-effectively monitor the capacity levels of litter bins and storage containers multiple times a day. Any data collected by these sensors is automatically transferred to the cloud and turned into useful data about the capacity status of the various containers monitored by the system. This data helps farmers decide whether to empty their bins or change their waste storage processes. The data also aids in waste collection, route optimization, vehicle loading, and siting or distribution of bins. These systems reduce waste collection costs by 30% and carbon emissions by 60%.
Smart solutions for transporting waste
By using IoT in smart waste management, transportation companies can reduce:
- Waste in the workplace.
- carbon emission.
- Processing/storage costs.
In the transportation industry, freight fleets and their maintenance generate large amounts of waste, many of which can be highly toxic. Utilizing these wastes can be an excellent efficiency measure where environmental regulations allow. Still, it's best to avoid generating waste altogether. This avoids costly disposal and specialized equipment such as high temperature incinerators. Warehousing activities also produce pallets, packaging material and various papers, which are easier to recycle or reuse than many other shipping wastes. However, few companies take advantage of these possible efficiency gains. These companies face legal liability, reputational damage, and financial costs for failing to capitalize on these effective waste management opportunities.
Companies can reduce packaging waste by using IP cameras at dump sites. These cameras monitor waste inflows and inform those involved, allowing them to make proactive decisions. Sensors could also be deployed to pay closer attention to the ongoing condition of waste management equipment images. Data from these sensors could also allow remote workers to predict and schedule appropriate equipment maintenance or waste diversion. CAN-модуль
Smart Solutions for Energy Industry Waste
Through smart waste management, energy companies can:
- Manage waste sorting with up to 99% accuracy.
- reduce their carbon emissions.
- Enhance the safety and cleanliness of the working environment.
- Reduce waste collection costs.
- Optimize waste management and collection processes.
Resource-intensive energy companies are using IoT to reduce their overall environmental impact and slash operating costs. As this sector is undergoing a fundamental shift from fossil or conventional energy sources to predominantly renewable energy sources, waste streams are also changing. Waste from the use and continued use of renewable energy includes glass, paper, copper and steel. Fortunately, many of these materials can be recycled or reused. As we have seen in other fields, IoT is an extraordinary helper in this situation. Energy companies can distinguish between non-recyclable and recyclable materials with ultrasonic sensors installed on sorting lines. This technology allows engineers to divert, capture and reintroduce waste into the production cycle.
Improper disposal of industrial waste can have disastrous consequences for the environment, human and animal life. From a purely pragmatic business standpoint, mismanagement of this waste can also lead to lost revenue, fines, and even more serious legal consequences. Fortunately, IoT can greatly improve the smart management of waste.