1

CHAPTER I

The Problem

Background of the Study

The Philippines grapples with unsustainable plastic production/consumption and

insufficient solid waste management infrastructure. A staggering 2.7 million tons of plastic

waste are generated in the Philippines each year, and an estimated 20 percent ends up in the

ocean. Comprising more than 7,500 islands, the livelihoods of the Philippines’ coastal

communities, and the fishing, shipping and tourism industries are especially vulnerable to the

impacts of marine debris (worldbank.org). The pollution we encounter today is a worldwide

issue since it exists everywhere. Solid trash left by people may cover the majority of the

habitat on Earth. The majority of rubbish takes years to degrade, which harms the

environment greatly. Because of the damages it does to its surroundings, it could make the

environment unfit and dangerous for living things. In addition to the fact that more

throwaway goods are developed and produced by many firms in the modern economy,

garbage is everywhere. This is one of the issues that the nation is dealing with. In today's

world, nothing is free except for the pollution that is visible everywhere; this is an issue that

each person is responsible for since they have obligations to the environment and their

surroundings.

The management of solid waste is seen as a critical worldwide issue that requires an

immediate response from the state and its citizens. It is anticipated that garbage generation in

the Philippines will continue to rise in the coming years. ( Coracero, E. E., Gallego, R. J., Frago,

K. J. M., & Gonzales, R. J. R. 2021) According to the analysis, the nation's solid waste
 2

management challenges include an increase in the volume of waste, lax enforcement of the

law, a dearth of hygienic landfills, and incorrect disposal.

Technology in modern society has its significance to determine the factors that affect

the country surrounding and to the community through environmentally. (Holt, 2018) Even

though some people believe intelligent machines could one day replace humans, having

intelligent robots in the workplace would create safer and more efficient work environments

which complement humans instead of completely replacing them. Currently people use

artificial intelligence to make intelligent machines to help those in need. Manufacturers have

been using AI in machines for many years with factories becoming more automated each

day. Robots are taking over the world by infiltrating a multitude of job sectors and replacing

the need for human input in various roles involving transportation, medical procedures,

military applications, and even industrial and commercial fields.

Most people immediately conjure up the concept of sentient robots attempting to

compete with humans when they think about intelligent machines. Understanding these fears

and the reasons behind these beliefs is important. Humans will be complemented by

intelligent robots in daily life. Even simple home equipment may be improved by artificial

intelligence. There will be new professions developed to oversee, improve, and maintain

these automated machines as society adapts and adopts a more automated lifestyle.

Artificial intelligence has its importance to contribute to the environmental aspect of

the country. Through this technology it enables appliances to be better and more reliable to

eradicate a problem or an issue. The implementation of this Artificial Intelligence based

Trash Bins, is to allow each individual to participate in eradicating the waste management

problem in the Country, preferably in Municipal wastes that most commonly in the Schools,
 3

Municipal Hall, Markets, Business properties, Stalls, Barangays, etc. The Smart Trash Bins

that can be modified through the use of technology Artificial Intelligence based, most

commonly by the Presence of motion and sound through our body are used to activate the

sensors that have been programmed in the AI based Smart Trash Bins.

Waste management and effective waste sorting have long been recognized as crucial

components of environmentally sustainable growth. By recycling and reusing discarded

items, is frequently used to increase recycling and lessen its impact on the environment. To

reduce the impact of improper garbage disposal, notably household garbage, using an

automated system based on Artificial Intelligence at waste categorization into recycling

categories. Humans' methods of managing solid waste over the millennia have remained

based on the basic goal of simply eliminating them. The major cause of the increase in

rubbish output has been population expansion. As a result, it should be minimized on an

individual basis in order to preserve the balance with which waste is handled (Islam et al.

2012) . This problem should be specially treated in the developing countries, where waste

management is a severe problem for their urbanization and economic development (Arebey

et al. 2011).

Statement of the Problem

The solid waste in the Philippines has accelerated at an expeditious amount of time

due to the lack of information, understanding, and awareness that causes the significant

issues of solid waste management. Hence, this study aims to discover the efficacy of

Implementing AI-based Smart Trash Bins in Waste Segregation and Reduction.

 4

The following are the research questions that have been identified:

How does Implementing AI-based Smart Trash Bins affect the Waste Segregation and

Reduction on the BNCHS?

1. What is the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) of the AI-based smart trash bin?

What is the overall equipment cost loss (OECL) of the AI-based smart trash bin?

2. What is the efficacy of the AI-based smart trash bin in terms of:

a. Cost effectiveness

b. Time of Waste Detection

Significance of the Study

The findings of this research study will allow the implementation of an AI-Based

Trash Bin that can help to reduce waste and segregate waste, which is easy to use and

harmless. The result of this study would make a big contribution to society that can develop a

better way to reduce waste. School, it will help to lessen the littered waste percentage in

school that has been done by the students. At the same time, the significant findings of this

research will greatly benefit the students, particularly those who will be conducting the same

study. Department of the Environment and National Resources or DENR, it will help them to

attain their campaign towards a cleanliest and greenest environment. Sanitary of Public

Places, it will help to improve the cleanliness program of every public places specially Parks,

Municipal office, Schools, public markets and etc. For future researchers, this study will

serve as their reference material and have background about how the AI-based Smart Trash

Bin is implemented on the waste segregation and waste reduction, as well as how this study
 5

benefits in their environment. This study may help to segregate waste as well as to reduce

waste in a certain location or facility, which will prevent the destruction of the ecosystem

Scope and Delimitation

The material that will be used in the study specifically in the Artificial Intelligence

technology, is the Sensors which mainly focuses on the Sound and Motion sensors. Through

the knowledge of the researchers in terms of ICT, they will be using a Computer Application

that focuses on the programming of the sensors that will be used in the Smart Trash Bins.

The material will be modified as an Artificial Intelligence based Smart Trash Bins. The

facility that will be used in the study is the presence of the waste management issues

(preferably to the Segregation and Reduction of waste) in each classroom on the BNCHS.

The study will be conducted at Bacarra National Comprehensive High School. This

study is experimental in environmental issues and focuses on Implementing AI-based Smart

Trash Bins: experimental study on Waste Segregation and Reduction. The main objective of

this study is to solve the waste management issues by implementing AI-based Smart Trash

Bins on the BNCHS. The researcher will examine the state of the art for using AI to address

the issues of waste management and provide a framework that may be used to reduce the

dangers associated with insufficient waste management facilities.

 6

Conceptual Framework

This study will provide solutions and try to integrate them into a complete waste

management system in developing facilities by putting forward a framework that

demonstrates how these different alternatives may be combined. These are some of the

several AI-related procedures that might be helpful during some of the important phases of

waste management, such as evaluation and sorting for proper disposal.

 7

Definition of Terms

Artificial Intelligence - Through the technology itself, this is used to modify Trash Bins into

Smart Trash Bins that automatically process through specific senses.

Smart Trash Bins - A material that is involved in the study that is modified through the

Technology of Artificial Intelligence to determine its effectiveness on the BNCHS.

Waste Segregation and Reduction - It is a process in which it allows the presence of the

Technology of Artificial Intelligence as a way of dealing Waste Management problems or

Issues.
 8

CHAPTER II

Review of Related Literature and Studies

Environmental Advantages of AI Smart Bins

Artificial Intelligence in waste management drastically reduces waste and makes our

lives convenient by a lot. It mainly focuses on environmental issues, specifically waste

management. AI garbage sorting is when Items are being thrown away, they need to be

segregated and sorted with their own categories, biodegradable wastes, non-biodegradable

wastes, and recyclable wastes. This process is done in Materials Recovery Facility or MRF,

this means that the growing worth of the recyclable materials would have a purpose instead

of everything being thrown in landfills. However, trash must first be sorted and processed

before it can be recycled. This implies that different garbage categories must be separated.

By being recycled, materials are kept out of landfills and the detrimental effects that have on

the environment.

AI-based sensors can discriminate items composed of different materials and

distinguish the items of the same material whether an item has been chemically

contaminated, ensuring purity of the waste stream. A number of waste management

companies have been using such techniques and are taking the advantage of Internet of

Things (IoT) sensors to monitor the fullness of trash receptacles throughout the city. The
 9

advantages of using such smart bins have effectively optimized the routes, timing and

frequencies of waste collection, and reduced the load of municipalities. Such automated

processes would provide the best use of technology for effective waste management to

prevent the human health risks as well as to protect the environment. This review article

includes details on various techniques based on machine learning and the use of artificial

intelligence for efficient waste management that could significantly minimize the risks

associated with human health and environment. (Sharda Bharti et al., 2022).

Solid waste is one of the important challenges to the environment. The inadequate

waste management causes alteration of the ecosystems including air, water, and soil

pollution, thus it represents a real threat to human health. Some studies gave evidence that

local populations nearby MSW facilities have low weight at birth, congenital anomalies, and

few types of cancers. The increasing generation of solid wastes posed the burden on the high

costs of the municipal budget. Population increase, rapid urbanization, booming economy,

and the rise in the standard of living have greatly accelerated the rate, amount and quality of

the municipal solid waste generation. Biodegradation of MSW according to the time is an

important factor that governs the amount of recyclable material, particularly the organic

contents. MSW generated from the developing countries are highly; heterogeneous in nature.

(Abdel-Shafy, MSM Mansour, 2018).

AI-based Waste Management on Economic Development

The modeling of human intelligence functions by machines, particularly computer

systems, is known as artificial intelligence. Expert systems, natural language processing,

speech recognition, and machine vision are some examples of specific AI applications. The
 10

study Implementing AI-based Smart Trash Bins: An Experimental study on Waste

Segregation and Reduction on the BNCHS, in connection with the economic development

and to waste management. Waste Management refers to the numerous plans for handling and

getting rid of trash. Wastes can be disposed of, destroyed , processed, recycled, reused, or

controlled. Reducing the amount of garbage and avoiding potential health and environmental

risks are the main goals of waste management. The economic development or growth

through AI’s will significantly increase as the technology develops and gains strength.

Almost every area of the global economy will be impacted, including income equality,

economic growth, and unemployment rates.

“Even though some people believe intelligent machines could one day replace

humans, having intelligent robots in the workplace would create safer and more efficient

work environments which complement humans instead of completely replacing them.

Currently people use artificial intelligence to make intelligent machines to help those in

need.” (Holt, 2018)

According to Holt (2018), AI-based machines are the companion of humans for the

next generations, it provides a development on the living environment of humans. AI

machines are the one who will replace humans into a better living that makes life easier and

more safer.

“A waste management with efficient classification plays an important role in

ecologically sustainable development by ensuring that waste is properly disposed of.

Efficient selective collection is often implemented to improve recycling and reduce

environmental impact”. (Glouche and Couderc, 2013)

 11

Glouche and Couderc (2013), Proved that waste management is the way humans

affect the development of the economy of a specific state or area. A waste management

composed of the reducing and recycling waste through selective collection or segregation

that has an impact on the environment.

Not only has artificial intelligence changed the production methods of traditional

industries; it has also presented a great opportunity for future industrial development to

decouple from environmental degradation and the promotion of green economic growth. The

article studies the influence of artificial intelligence on green economic growth and its

mechanism. The research shows that artificial intelligence can promote green economic

growth in China. (Chia-Hui Lu, 2021)

As we enter the Age of Sustainable Development (Sachs, 2015), in which the 17

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are defining the development agenda for the

nations of the world, AI is also rapidly opening up a new frontier in the fields of business,

corporate practices, and governmental policy. The intelligence of machines and robotics

with deep learning capabilities is already solving cognitive problems commonly

associated with human intelligence.

AI is now increasingly ubiquitous in business and industry. It has the potential to

revolutionize the way we discover, learn, live, communicate, and work. It has tremendous

potential for the economy and society (National Artificial Intelligence …, 2016).

AI based waste management on economic development has an impact on the research

field that focuses its significance to determine what are the aims into a specific study.
 12

Commonly the implementing of ai based smart trash bins in segregation and reducing wastes

in a specific area or facility. These Review of Related Literature is to identify the capability

of the Research study AI-based Smart Trash Bins on economic development, the study will

be using these literatures to support the study of whatever the experimental study may result

in.

Alternative Waste Management Methods

There are many waste management strategies and methods at your disposal. These

strategies can be combined or modified to construct an organization-specific waste

management strategy. Modern waste management strategies are geared towards

sustainability. Other alternatives for waste management is to reduce, reuse and recycle waste.

Considerable economic as well as environmental benefits can be achieved when

appropriate industrial waste management is implemented. The objective of this study was to

find a method of organizing a waste management system and of obtaining an overview of the

whole system. The method proposed emphasizes the optimization of waste management with

regard to energy, economy and environmental impact in separate evaluations. (Hogland and

Stenis, 2000)

The purpose of this paper is to review the types of models that are currently being

used in the area of BNCHS waste management and to highlight some major shortcomings of

these models. Most of the school waste models identified in the literature are decision

support models and for the purposes of this research, are divided into three categories those
 13

based on cost benefit analysis, those based on life cycle assessment and those based on

multicriteria decision making. (Morissey, 2003)

According to (Allesch and Brunner (2014), most studies are based on life cycle

assessments, multi-criteria-decision-making, cost-benefit analysis, risk assessments, and

benchmarking. Approximately 40% of the reviewed articles are life cycle assessment-based;

and more than 50% apply scenario analysis to identify the best waste management options.

Also, most studies focus on school solid waste and consider specific environmental loadings.

(Allesch and Brunner, 2014)

In this study, waste management concepts, waste management systems, biomass and

bio-waste resources, waste classification, and waste management methods have been

reviewed. The waste management system consists of the whole set of activities related to

handling, treating, disposing or recycling the waste materials. General classification of

wastes is difficult. (Demirbas, 2010)

There are 14 methods and all of these are the types of impacts included, the objects

under study and whether the method is procedural or analytical. The different methods can be

described as systems analysis methods. (Finnveden et. al, 2007)

Materials used in AI-based Smart Bins

Implementing an AI-based smart bin is hard and challenging, but it is worth it. We

can form AI-based smart bins by using different materials in order to detect and segregate

certain waste. Segregation on a large scale is difficult to manage with the minimum resources

available. (Patel, D.N., Dasari, C., Chembarpu, A., & Sasi, A., 2019-2020) The system has a

plethora of sensors and a machine learning model for easier segregation of waste. They have
 14

a process of identifying non-biodegradable and biodegradable material with the help of

sensors and ML models built for identification based on this data.

The smart bin has multiple features, and its main feature is garbage segregation.

(Pereira, W., Parulekar, S., Phaltankar, S., & Kamble, V., 2019) It will also have ultrasound

sensors for the bin to open when a person approaches it to throw garbage, thus making it

hands-free and evidently more hygienic. With this, the smart bin is an efficient and hygienic

waste disposal and segregation system, which will eventually help in waste optimization.

According to Salimi, I., Dewantara, B., and Kurnianto Wibowo, I. (2018), they use

the Haar-Cascade method to first detect any objects on the floor. Then, the Gray-Level Co-

Occurrence Matrix (GLCM) and Histogram of Oriented Gradient (HOG) are combined to get

a set of features. Support Vector Machines (SVM) are used to classify the features into

organic waste, non-organic waste, and non-waste. They expected that by using this robot, it

would help develop the habit of disposing of garbage in the right place. Also, people can be

aware of how to handle their waste in the right way, which can reduce the waste problem.
 15

CHAPTER III

Methodology

This Chapter presents the research design which will be using in the creation of the

study, instruments use, materials, procedures to be follow in the experimentation and the

statistical treatment to be employ so the hypothesis can be tested and the conclusion will be

establish.

Research Design

This Study will use the experimental design particularly the single group design in

which only the effectiveness in terms of speed of the Artificial Intelligence Trash bin in

detecting biodegradable and non-biodegradable will be measured and observed using F-test

or ANOVA. Rate of acceptability will be determined and measured using Weighted

Arithmetic Mean.

Materials:

The following materials are needed in order to conduct the experiment.

Physical Materials:
 16

1. Metal Plate 5. Arduino Uno

2. Stepper Motor 6. USB

3. Web Camera 7. Programmable board

4. Solar Panel 8. Battery

Programs Materials:

1. SentiSight_3_2_SDK Application

2. Arduino UNO Installation (for the Board)

3. Stepper Motor Program

Procedure:

All materials will be prepared prior to the experiment. In this procedure there

are only four (4) steps to be followed in order to construct the device. This includes: (1)

Constructing the trashcan (2) downloads (3) Garbage Database (4) Testing the Artificial

Intelligence Trash bin.

Phase I: Constructing of Trashcan

Trash bin construction started with the cutting of the metal plate with a measurement

18 inches x 10 inches x 20 inches. Platform measurement will be measured and cut with a

width of 6 inches x 8 inches length to house Camera sensor.

 17

Three (3) holes was drilled to the trashcan (Front, Back, and top) for the installation

of PC Camera at the top of the trash bin. Metal plate was welded including the separator

between the two garbage bins for the non-biodegradable and biodegradable wastes.

Stepper Motor and Arduino UNO was installed and supported by the cages for safety

purposes. Camera sensor was installed at the top of the trash bin for easily detection of

garbage.

Phase II Downloads

Program will be downloaded from the internet by which “Stepper Motor Program”

and Senti Sight Program will be downloaded and save the program to the computer.

Phase III Garbage Database

Using the Senti Sight program downloaded prior to the garbage database installation

the “Senti Sight Algorithm Demo” Vimicro USB 2.0 PC Camera was selected to display

resolution. To test if the camera is working and could recognized objects one of the

researcher hand twisted in different angles to determine if it could recognize an object at any

position. At the bottom part of the screen a horizontal bar filling up was noticed, which

indicates the time of hand learning. After the process sample image of the hand appear,

which shows that the camera sees an object before the second picture with the box.

Learning the object will be next, which will be displayed on the screen that’s how the

camera sees an object. Plastic bottle was place in a different angle and was rotated at
 18

different angles drawing it up and down for closer and farther look so that the camera will be

able to recognize it once it passes by at any cause and again at the bottom part of the screen

the bar filling up will appear, that indicates the time needed to rotate the object, once the

process is finished the program will ask to name it.

Lastly the recognition process places the Plastic bottle again and the object will see

the object named “Plastic bottle” that shows that the program already recognized it.

Phase IV Testing the Artificial intelligence Trash bin

The device was tested in terms time to detect garbage and through a survey test

questionnaire for the Rate of acceptability such as Usability, Function Effectiveness, and

Efficiency.

Five (5) different commonly thrown waste are then measured carefully for three (3)

trials to test its’ effectiveness in detecting garbage

Data Gathering Technique

Gathering of data, will precisely observe in terms of time and will measured using a

stop watch. Ten (10) respondents was gathered to rate its acceptability through purposive

random sampling. Guidelines, activities, lessons and demonstrations was be given to the

respondents to have a proper knowledge in rating it, pre – assessment was also given to know

if every question that was included in survey questionnaire is capable to be answered

whereas question serve as the basis of the researchers in determining its acceptability rate.
 19

Flowchart

PHASE I

Collection of Needed Application of Stepper

Materials & construction of Motor, USB, Cam, Arduino
\\\\Trash bin UNO

PHASE II

Search Downloads and

programming

Testing of downloaded Opening and Installing Key Coding

programs Programs

PHASE III
If problems occur in testing
the downloaded programs

Garbage Database PHASE IV Testing

 20

Statistical Treatment

The Data gathered and interpreted by means of Weighted Arithmetic Mean.

Rate of Acceptability in terms of Time to detect waste was computed to determine the most

effective treatment between the categorical independent variables. Assessing the main effect

and giving conclusion in the interaction between the given treatments.

∑ x1
mⅇan= ∑x1 = Values given in a set of data
n
n = Total number of values.