A Low-Cost Automated Sorting Recycle Bin powered by Arduino Microcontroller

The increase on amount of waste daily in Malaysia due to lack of waste management and enforcement by the government, has created unpleasant views of overflowed waste at the landfill. This paper presents the development of a low-cost recycle bin that automatically sorts different type of recycle waste using an Arduino microcontroller. The objectives of this work are to construct a recycle bin prototype with a sensing mechanism that is able to sort recycle waste (such as metal, paper and plastic) and automatically assign the waste to specific bin partition according to their types. This paper also presents the sensitivity analysis of the recycle bin prototype to sort the waste correctly. The construction of the recycle bin prototype is divided into two parts: i) sensing and ii) mechanical. The sensing part detects type of waste material such as metal, paper and plastic. The metal-based waste is detected using an inductive proximity sensor; while, for paper and plastic-based waste, a light emitting diode (LED) and a light dependent resistor (LDR) are utilized. The mechanical part assembled a servo motor together with the microcontroller to sort the waste type accordingly. The outcomes of this work show that the recycle bin prototype is able to sort the waste successfully especially the plastic waste and it is highly potential to be utilized in the future. However, the prototype sensitivity on paper and metal-based waste need to be further improved for an effective segregation of waste.