Chapter 9 - Waste management in smart cities using blockchaining technology

Abstract

Population increment and urbanization are responsible for producing higher amount of waste. Waste management is one of the major challenges to every country because that affects the environment in a serious manner. Government and nongovernmental organizations are working toward solutions for better waste management. Unorganized management of waste such as domestic waste, e-waste, industrial waste, and plastic waste creates many human problems such as pollution, diseases, and also affects the hygiene of living being. When waste generation rate increases lead to issue of finding new disposal places, proper waste disposal, collection, and management methods are needed. Management of waste includes proper collection, segregation, and recycling of discarded wastes in an environment friendly manner. In order to overcome all these problems, we propose the idea of modern waste management system in smart cities which manage waste in order to clean environment without interaction of human by blockchaining technology. Blockchaining is a super secure digital decentralized ledger, where transactions records are kept chronologically and publicly. Blockchaining waste management platform can provide the stakeholders with traceable and transparent way to regulate waste management activities and also achieve sustainable sanitation in waste management. Waste tracking is always difficult but with blockchaining, it must be easier. In this method, also connecting internet of things sensors with the decentralized network can help to generate the data and offer real-time tracking facility to garbage trucks throughout their journey. By implementing blockchaining methodology in waste management system also helpful in charging the penalties or financial rewards to the waste management service providers if they fail to provide better time-based services. Blockchaining can provide the public and the waste collection service with real-time information on trash bags so that they can always know whether they are full or empty.