CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1Waste management

Waste management or Waste disposal is all the activities and actions

required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes
amongst other things, collection, transport, treatment and disposal
of waste together with monitoring and regulation. It also encompasses the legal
and regulatory framework that relates to waste management encompassing
guidance on recycling etc.

The term normally relates to all kinds of waste, whether generated during
the extraction of raw materials, the processing of raw materials into
intermediate and final products, the consumption of final products, or other
human activities, including municipal (residential, institutional, commercial),
agricultural, and social (health care, household hazardous waste, sewage
sludge). Waste management is intended to reduce adverse effects of waste
on health, the environment or aesthetics. Waste management practices are not
uniform among countries (developed and developing nations); regions
(urban and rural area), and sectors (residential and industrial).

1.2 Principles of waste management

There are a number of concepts about waste management which vary in
their usage between countries or regions. Some of the most general, widely used
concepts include:

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 Fig.1.2.1.Diagram of the waste hierarchy

1.2.1. Waste hierarchy

The waste hierarchy refers to the "3 Rs" reduce, reuse and recycle, which

classify waste management strategies according to their desirability in terms
of waste minimization. The waste hierarchy remains the cornerstone of most
waste minimization strategies. The aim of the waste hierarchy is to extract the
maximum practical benefits from products and to generate the minimum
amount of waste; see: resource recovery. The waste hierarchy is represented as
a pyramid because the basic premise is for policy to take action first and prevent
the generation of waste. The next step or preferred action is to reduce the
generation of waste i.e. by re-use. The next is recycling which would include
composting. Following this step is material recovery and waste-to-energy.
Energy can be recovered from processes i.e. landfill and combustion, at this
level of the hierarchy. The final action is disposal, in landfills or through
incineration without energy recovery. This last step is the final resort for waste
which has not been prevented, diverted or recovered. The waste hierarchy
represents the progression of a product or material through the
sequential stages of the pyramid of waste management. The hierarchy
represents the latter parts of the life-cycle for each product.

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1.2.2. Life-cycle of a product

The life-cycle begins with design, then proceeds through manufacture,

distribution, use and then follows through the waste hierarchy's stages of
reduce, reuse and recycle. Each of the above stages of the life-cycle offers
opportunities for policy intervention, to rethink the need for the product, to
redesign to minimize waste potential, to extend its use .The key behind the life-
cycle of a product is to optimize the use of the world's limited resources by
avoiding the unnecessary generation of waste.

1.2.3. Resource efficiency

Resource efficiency reflects the understanding that current, global,
economic growth and development cannot be sustained with the current
production and consumption patterns. Globally, we are extracting more
resources to produce goods than the planet can replenish. Resource efficiency is
the reduction of the environmental impact from the production and consumption
of these goods, from final raw material extraction to last use and disposal. This
process of resource efficiency can address sustainability.

1.3. Polluter pays principle

The Polluter pays principle is a principle where the polluting party pays
for the impact caused to the environment. With respect to waste management,
this generally refers to the requirement for a waste generator to pay for
appropriate disposal of the unrecoverable material.
In many European countries waste segregation has already been
introduced at the beginning of the recycling path, i.e. at home. Just people
divide waste into groups such as plastic, metal, glass and organic/bio. The use
of selective automatic techniques for these groups is easier than for municipal

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solid waste (MSW). Unfortunately, a large part of the waste is still collected in
the form of the MSW, which is why the countries strive for the most effective
reprocessing of waste materials. In order to do this, the rubbish should be
effectively sort into individual factions and materials. Therefore, an important
task is to isolate individual types of materials from the MSW. Therefore,
techniques and procedures for segregating waste are used for the main groups of
materials such as paper, glass, metal, wood, plastic and biomass by property
system . The biggest challenge, however, is the separation of various types of
materials within a given group, i.e. sorting different color of glass or different
types of plastic. The problem of plastic garbage is interesting and at the same
time important due to the possibility of recycling only some types of plastic
(e.g. PET).

In domestic waste, a significant part is occupied by plastic elements, and within

it may be distinguished four dominant types: PET, HDPE, PP, PS.
Unfortunately, at this stage of recycling, there is no division into individual
types of plastic and they often end up in a group of plastic waste or MSW.
There is a problem with the separation of different types of plastics, some of
which can be re-used. One of the possibilities is the use of computer vision
techniques, in particular image recognition.

1.4. EMBEDDED SYSTEMS - OVERVIEW

1.4.1. System

A system is an arrangement in which all its unit assemble work together

according to a set of rules. It can also be defined as a way of working,
organizing or doing one or many tasks according to a fixed plan. For example,
a watch is a time displaying system. Its components follow a set of rules to
show time. If one of its parts fails, the watch will stop working. So we can say,
in a system, all its subcomponents depend on each other.

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1.4.2. System

As its name suggests, Embedded means something that is attached to

another thing. An embedded system can be thought of as a computer hardware
system having software embedded in it. An embedded system can be an
independent system or it can be a part of a large system. An embedded system
is a microcontroller or microprocessor based system which is designed to
perform a specific task. For example, a fire alarm is an embedded system; it
will sense only smoke.

An embedded system has three components −

 It has hardware.

 It has application software.

 It has Real Time Operating system (RTOS) that supervises the

application software and provide mechanism to let the processor run a
process as per scheduling by following a plan to control the latencies.
RTOS defines the way the system works. It sets the rules during the
execution of application program. A small scale embedded system may
not have RTOS.

So we can define an embedded system as a Microcontroller based, software

driven, and reliable real-time control system.

1.4.3. Characteristics of an Embedded System

 Single-functioned − An embedded system usually performs a

specialized operation and does the same repeatedly. For example: A
pager always functions as a pager.

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 Tightly constrained − All computing systems have constraints on design
metrics, but those on an embedded system can be especially tight.
Design metrics is a measure of an implementation's features such as its
cost, size, power, and performance. It must be of a size to fit on a single
chip, must perform fast enough to process data in real time and consume
minimum power to extend battery life.

 Reactive and Real time − Many embedded systems must continually

react to changes in the system's environment and must compute certain
results in real time without any delay. Consider an example of a car
cruise controller; it continually monitors and reacts to speed and brake
sensors. It must compute acceleration or de-accelerations repeatedly
within a limited time; a delayed computation can result in failure to
control of the car.

 Microprocessors based − It must be microprocessor or microcontroller

based.

 Memory − It must have a memory, as its software usually embeds in

ROM. It does not need any secondary memories in the computer.

 Connected − It must have connected peripherals to connect input and

output devices.

 HW-SW systems − Software is used for more features and flexibility.

Hardware is used for performance and security.

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 Fig.1.4.3.Block diagram of HW-SW Systems

Advantages

 Easily Customizable
 Low power consumption
 Low cost
 Enhanced performance

Disadvantages

 High development effort

 Larger time to market

1.4.4. Basic Structure of an Embedded System

The following illustration shows the basic structure of an embedded system −

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 Fig.1.4.4.Basic Structure of an Embedded System

 Sensor − It measures the physical quantity and converts it to an electrical

signal which can be read by an observer or by any electronic instrument
like an A2D converter. A sensor stores the measured quantity to the
memory.

 A-D Converter − An analog-to-digital converter converts the analog

signal sent by the sensor into a digital signal.

 Processor & ASICs − Processors process the data to measure the output
and store it to the memory.

 D-A Converter − A digital-to-analog converter converts the digital data

fed by the processor to analog data

 Actuator − An actuator compares the output given by the D-A Converter

to the actual (expected) output stored in it and stores the approved
output.