Page 61 - Plastics News November 2017

TECHNOLOGY

Madras IIT students develop Automatic Waste Segregator

tudents from IIT Madras have developed dustbins that glass waste, there is a different one. "Once this selection
Scould differentiate between the wet and dry waste, is decided, the robotic arms that work on a motor, push
and push them into separate boxes, thus making it easier the waste into the respective sub-parts at the bottom of
to segregate and recycle them. This has been made real the container. The entire process of identifying the type
by nine students from IIT Madras, who spent all their of waste and pushing it to the respective segment takes
semesters in developing this. While Hari Ramachandran less than 10 seconds," adds Hari. The bin is made of low
and Pranjal Mehta took care of the business part, Arvind cost raw materials like plastic, wood and metals. "But
Pujari, Varun Sundar, Vishnu Harshit, Rohith Srinivaas, when it hits the market, it will be a transparent bin. We
Iniyan Ram, Sai Venkat and Tanay Garg monitored the would probably go for plastic which can be transparent,
technology aspect of their venture — Pikkollo — that works light weight and looks good aesthetically. We are working
towards solving the global issue of recycling waste. The on it," says Pranjal. The current bin is about 95 cm tall
and contains around nine litres of waste. The students
are working on reducing the size, to 70 cm, that can hold
around six to seven litres of waste. Presently, it works on
electricity and the bin has to be connected to power all
the time so that the motor can function.
They are working on a design where it doesn't have
to be connected to power always. They have spent
around `40,000 to develop this bin, which has also been
successfully run as a pilot project in the Kalakshetra
Colony for two-and-a-half months. "Last April, we won
`30,000 by participating in a startup boot camp in our
students will pitch in their ideas related to the project at college. We used that money to build this. Arvind and
the national and international levels at the Hult Prize, a Varun spent around `15,000 to develop the technology.
platform by The Bill Clinton Foundation, where startups The parts and other raw materials have been sourced
from the universities receive seed investment. The from the local market," shares Hari. Last year, Hari and
regional competition was held at IIT Madras, where 10 Pranjal tried their hands at various things to come up with
teams participated to pitch in their ideas.
a solution to segregate waste. It all started with collecting
Smart Bin aka Automatic Waste Segregator (AWS-ONE) looks newspapers from the hostels in their college. They realised
like a box which has a base with four different segments how unorganised the scrapdealers work were. They also
— there is a motor and sensors on the top of it that does happened to meet other members from the team, who
the work of identifying the type of waste and pushing it held the same interest. When they started working in
into one of the four blocks. "We have used hydrophobic the Kalakshetra Colony to convince people to try their
coating on the robotic arms that pushes the waste into bin, they were not taken seriously. "People would say it
the bin, without which there are chances of liquid waste doesn't matter to them as they were anyway throwing
sticking onto it. We have placed sensors like capacitive the trash outside their house. But we were lucky enough
sensors, resistive sensors, inductive proximity sensor and to meet a few people who were already doing their bit
ultrasonic sensors, and there is a camera, too, on top of in waste segregation," recalls Pranjal. Now, they plan to
it," explains Pranjal. All these sensors derive some type of work with Self-Help Groups (SHG) that can help them sell
data from the waste that are put in and provide some sort the waste to the rag pickers, who in turn, will deliver it to
of reading. For example, if it is a paper, it goes into one the recyclers. "We wish to reach every home and empower
box, and if it is plastic, it goes into a specific box meant for each individual. After college, we would definitely take it
plastic. For wet waste, there is another and for metal and as a full-time work," they smile.

61 N ovember 2017 Plastics News