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International Journal on Emerging Technologies (Special Issue on ICRIET-2016) 7(2): 265-268(2016)

ISSN No. (Print) : 0975-8364

ISSN No. (Online) : 2249-3255

Automation of Waste Segregation System using PLC

Rashmi M. Kittali* and Ashok Sutagundar**
*Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering,
Basaveshwar Engineering College, Bagalkot-587102, INDIA
**Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Basaveshwar Engineering College, Bagalkot-587102, INDIA
(Corresponding author: Rashmi M. Kittali)
(Received 28 September, 2016 Accepted 29 October, 2016)
(Published by Research Trend, Website: www.researchtrend.net)
ABSTRACT: With the growing population rate, the amount of waste being produced is also increasing at a
very faster rate. It is also posing a very serious problem at the municipal level to manage the wastes being
dumped everywhere as landfill waste. So, it is very crucial to have some system to manage waste
automatically which is currently not there. Prime Minister Modi’s mission of Swaccha Bharat Abhiyan can
also be successfully implemented by the proposed system. The paper proposes a novel method where the
provision is given to separate out wet and dry waste into respective bins by the sensing of different sensors
incorporated along the conveyor belt on which initially crushed waste is moving. Pieces of glass, paper,
metallic materials, and wet waste are separated out from proposed work. Using the segregated wet waste as
the organic manure for growth of plants and recycling of most of the dry components like paper, glass, plastic
increases the economic value of the waste to its best. We are using programmable logic controller (PLC) as
main component and proposed system is simulated using INDRA WORKS Engineering, which is firmware of
BOSCH REXROTH PLC’s.
Keywords: Waste segregation, PLC, Hydraulic cylinder, conveyor belt, Moisture sensor.
I. INTRODUCTION However, it seems to be time consuming and also
segregating waste with their bare hands might cause
Throwing waste into a bin is a good thing. However, it
cuts and bruises due to glassy objects. Infections may
is not where the process of managing waste ends, but
also lead to severe illnesses. In addition to a high
where it actually begins. Segregation is the process of
prevalence of bites of rodents, dogs and other vermin
separating biodegradable waste from non biodegradable
[1], this system is still at large scale in most parts of the
waste for proper disposal and recycling and is the first
India. Segregation system using RFID is also used
step of waste management. It is often recommended to
where the RFID is considered to be attached to each
have two separate dustbins in the house to keep wet
type of material during manufacturing only to resolve
waste from mixing up with its dry counterpart.
the problem of sorting during the disposal stage of the
Improper segregation may cause mixing in landfills, in
product [2]. But, the problem arises because of use of
turn leading to toxic release in the ground and eventual
RFID scanners in harsh and non-suitable areas, added
contamination of ground water. Methane gas is likely to
cost the companies must be ready to bear so that tags
be released in such circumstances, which is one of the
are attached to each output product. The other method
most harmful greenhouse gases. Proper segregation
is making use of microcontroller for segregation. Even
leads to proper recycling. Most of the waste can be
this poses some serious problems like more time
reused and recycled. Various laws, regulations and
consumption, not suitable in all types of environments
other actions at the government level are implemented
and unable to segregate medical waste, sanitary waste
to cope up with hazardous waste generation and
and e-waste properly failing to obey certain rules and
management. Literature survey says that the basic
regulations imposed by the government in their
method followed usually involves rag pickers who
segregation.
collect and dispose most of the urban solid waste.
 Kittali and Sutagundar 266
So to overcome the drawbacks from all these methods Second one which is the heart of whole system is PLC
PLC based system is proposed due to inherent which processes the signals from input modules and
advantages like modular design, provision to make performs actions according to the logic diagram written
required short-term adjustments without having a large for it. The last is the output module interfaced with the
impact on the whole system, flexibility, cost, less output giving devices. In our case, conveyor belt which
wiring etc. The proposed work presents automatic starts running as soon as the IR sensor is actuated and
system using PLC where IR, moisture, photo-electric, cylinders which will expand to act as a flap to push
inductive and capacitive sensors are interconnected waste into bin.
with PLC in such a manner so that they function in a
III. COMPONENTS USED
proper sequence to detect the materials moving
continuously on the conveyor belt. Hydraulic cylinder The main components used in the proposed system are
will push the waste to different collecting bins which discussed below:
are placed exactly opposite to sensor position so as
A. Crusher
collect the wastes which can be further used as organic
All the waste is first put into a crusher to reduce the size
powder or recycled.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: of some bigger materials. The crushed waste is then
Section 2 presents the block diagram of automatic dumped to a funnel like structure which helps in
systematic movement of materials over the conveyor
waste segregating system. Section 3 explains the
belt.Please note that it is not connected to the PLC and
various components used. Working of automated
operated independently.
system is depicted in section 4 through the help of flow
chart and ladder diagram. Finally, section 5 presents the B. Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)
conclusion and future scope. Bosch Rexroth PLC works as the core of the project. It
has control over all other elements used. The main
II. AUTOMATED WASTE SEGREGATION
function of it is to acquire the signals from the input
SYSTEM
and perform certain actions as the output. Fig 2. shows
In this section, we describe the block diagram of the the Indracontrol L10 PLC with onboard input and
system. Fig 1. shows the proposed block diagram based output modules.
on which the interfacing of various inputs and outputs
is done with the PLC.

Fig. 2. Onboard input/output modules of PLC.

Fig. 1. Proposed network model.
The software used for programming this Bosch Rexroth
According to above mentioned figure, there are three PLC of L10 series is Indra Works Engineering. The
main systems involved. One is the input module to ladder logic developed is dumped on to the PLC from
which the wet waste detecting, object detecting, metal, PC by Ethernet cable.
plastic, glass and paper detecting sensors are interfaced.
Along the conveyor belt these all are appropriately C. Sensors
arranged with the respective hydraulic cylinders below In order to detect few of the materials in the waste
them and the collecting bins in-front. High speed considered to either re-use them or to re-cycle, various
blowing fan is also used to blow away the dust particles sensors are used.
and other light weight materials into a collector placed
exactly opposite to it.
 Kittali and Sutagundar 267
(a) IR sensor. The main motto of this sensor is used (d) Plastic detection sensor:
to detect the presence of any object on the conveyor Use is made of photoelectric sensor Built-in Amplifier
belt by emitting the infrared radiations. When the for Detecting Clear, Plastic Bottles. Different sized
object is detected, it will signal the PLC to start the bottles upto 2-l can be sorted.
conveyor if the start button is made on already. Fig 3. (e) Proximity Capacitive sensor to detect glass and
shows the working principle of IR sensor. paper:
The principle of operation of the sensor is that an
internal oscillator will not oscillate until a target
material is moved close to the sensor face. The target
material varies the capacitance of a capacitor in the
face of the sensor that is part of the oscillator circuit.

Fig. 3. Working of IR sensor.

(b) Moisture sensor. This sensor is used basically to
Fig. 6. Capacitive proximity sensor.
separate the organic waste (wet) from dry waste.
Therefore, it is placed at the beginning of the conveyor A. Conveyor belt and fan
belt. It measures the change in electrical impedance. A continuously moving conveyor belt is used to which
When the water vapour is absorbed, the ionic the different object detecting sensors are attached. The
functional groups get dissociated and the electrical materials move over this and are put into respective
conductivity will increase due to conductive polymer. bins after the sensing mechanism is over with the help
of hydraulic cylinders. High speed fan is also used in
the midway or at last to blow out dust and other
particles.
B. Hydualic cylinders
Spring return type single acting cylinder is used in
which cylinder is pressurized from only one side due
to high force being exerted by fluid during both the
extension as well as the retraction process.
Fig. 4. Moisture sensors.
(c) Metal detection sensor. Inductive proximity
sensors operate on the principle that the inductance of
a coil and the power losses in the coil vary as a
metallic (or conductive) object is passed near to it.
Thus, is used to sense the metallic wastes and is
insensitive to non-metallic wastes.

Fig. 7. Hydraulic cylinder.

IV. WORKING AND SIMULATION
This section describes briefly the working of the
system with the help of flow chart. Ladder diagrams
showing the simulation results are also discussed. Fig.
6. shows the flow chart for the working of the
Fig. 5. Inductive sensor. proposed work.
 Kittali and Sutagundar 268

Fig. 8. Flow chart.

The process begins with the waste collection and components detection and separation. This system can
dumping all this into a crusher which is operated be implemented at the municipal level or in some small
separately from the designed system. Later, crushed scale industries to segregate out the metallic, plastic,
waste is made to fall on to a large funnel like structure. glass and paper wastes more efficiently at an affordable
At the output of this stage, the waste starts moving on cost. Use of PLC has added advantages like reduction
to the long conveyor belt installed. Initially, conveyor in manpower with improved accuracy and speed of
starts moving only when the IR sensor is sensed. waste management, also avoiding the risk of working at
Further, upon sensing of individual sensors attached at hazardous places. In Future, the work can be
different locations along the belt, the conveyor belt implemented by making use of a robotic arm to pick
halts for about 5s and then respective hydraulic and place certain materials which can be re-used. Also,
cylinders are energized and waste material is pushed to limit sensors can be placed at the top of each of the
respective bin. Note that at a time only one sensor can collecting bins to unload them when they are full.
sense. Fan will help in collecting the small dust
REFERENCES
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[3]. Subhasini Dwivedi, Michael Fernandes, Rohit D’souza,
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Science & Technoledge.

Fig. 9. Ladder diagram.

V. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE SCOPE
In this paper, we proposed an automatic waste
segregating system using the PLC. The system
separates out the wet and dry waste along with few dry