A Smart Waste Management with Self-Describing Objects - Yann Glouche & Paul Couderc

Waste management is an important requirement for ecologically sustainable development in many countries. Efficient sorting of waste is a major issue in today’s society. In Europe, the consumer society has led to an ever-increasing production of waste. This is a consequence of the consumer’s behavior and worsened by packaging. Production of waste reaches almost 1.2 kg/day/inhabitant in western Europe. Paradoxically, the same consumers who are very sensitive to environmental protection are often reluctant when it comes to having more land-filling or more incinerators. Therefore, waste should be disposed and treated properly to reduce environmental impact. Waste management services are becoming an important market, for which the waste collection process is a critical aspect for the service providers. The main goals are the following: 

1) Reducing waste production 
2) Ensuring that wastes are properly disposed 
3) Recycling and re-using disposed products. 

This report looks at the various way to achieve these goals including taxes, regulations, and most importantly Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). RFID is a pervasive computing technology that can be used to improve waste management by providing early automatic identification of waste at the bin level.