The happiness and welfare of citizenry of any nation depends on their health. And good health of the people of a country has a lot to do with how it manages its waste. But there are many countries, specifically in Southeast Asia that are yet to catch up with the technology driven solutions that many countries use to manage its solid waste in other parts of the world.
Big cities have risen dramatically over the previous half-century throughout the world, and experts predict that the trend will continue even further. Population growth combined with increasing urbanization places great strain on cities and towns, particularly in developing countries like Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam etc.
The way the region’s population is exploding, leading to the increased waste, it is crucial for each nation in the region to have a robust solid waste management system in place. Without effective solid waste management services, reaching the Sustainable Development Goals is unthinkable.
Web Of Problems
Most of the Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, and the Philippines, are struggling with challenges such as sporadic collection of wastes, unregulated disposal of trash, Inefficient manpower and so on. All of these challenges originate from the country’s increasing solid waste generation in major cities.
Convexicon: Cleaning cities in India and around the world
Solid waste is one of the Southeast Asian countries’ most serious environmental concerns. And food accounts for a sizable amount of the region’s trash. Solid waste created by a range of sources especially food is improperly sorted and disposed of in dumpsites or openly burned, a dangerous practice that can result in a variety of health problems.
Southeast Asia’s poor waste management stems from lagging infrastructural development in the face of explosive economic growth and urbanization. Despite being the most populous city in Southeast Asia at an estimated 10.8 million people, Jakarta is only just beginning to construct its very first incinerator.
Indonesia’s sanitary landfills are increasingly being operated as unsanitary open dump sites. Needless to say, open dumps bring a wide range of problems to the communities around them, such as groundwater pollution and lingering odor.
Most people don’t fully understand what constitutes recyclable waste, leading to a low recycling rate. The recycling rate across Southeast Asia is less than 50 percent, and composting and incineration are practiced only in limited capacity.
Composting can contribute to a more efficient MSWM in Vietnamese cities, but is not yet implemented countrywide for a number of reasons, including: poor technical implementation that leads to low quality of compost, low input of feedstock, and low domestic market acceptance.
Malaysia is still struggling with basic issues of having reliable and consistent data on waste generation rate and its characteristics. This haphazard waste management endangers Southeast Asia’s ecology where most countries are blessed with long coastlines, as it is frequently burnt or deposited in waterways.
Small Steps Towards Larger Goal
To their credit, few countries in the region have adopted innovative strategies to tackle the waste problem and have set example for the rest. Indonesia has attempted to tackle its waste problem by introducing a waste-bank program (BANK SAMPAH) in 2012. Households sort their trash into organic and non-organic waste, then deposit it in a central neighborhood waste bank, which provides them monetary returns for their trash.
A few of NGOs in the region have also come forward to lend the helping hand. The Ocean Cleanup, a non-profit organization focused on using technology to rid the ocean of plastic, has developed some innovative solutions. While The Interceptor—a trash-eating barge intercepts trash in rivers before it ends up in the ocean.
Though all these are very commendable effort, we should not let our focus wither away from the fact that it still doesn’t resolve the system-wide waste management challenges that Southeast Asia faces.
Technology to the Rescue
To make major cities sustainable or even livable implementing Smart Solid Waste Management solutions can be a start. Smart Solid waste management solutions include the process of managing, segregating, and recycling solid waste through the use of sensors, intelligent monitoring systems, and mobile applications
Convexicon Software Solutions, a Gurgaon based Indian company is already helping Municipal corporations of cities like Lucknow, Varanasi, Jhansi, Hyderabad and Hubbali-Dharwad etc. to help manage and monitor its solid waste operations. It provides IoT-based waste monitoring solutions to municipalities to increase the efficiency of waste collection. Municipalities or private contractors can ensure efficient waste management processes and close gaps as soon as they occur using IoT-based waste management solutions.
Municipalities benefit from data intelligence and real-time insights provided by IoT solutions of Convexicon for solid waste management. These insights can be utilized to identify and manage the fill patterns of trash bins in an area. Along with hardware solutions, mobile applications are also used to address challenges inherent in the traditional waste management system, such as tracking drivers in the field.
How Can ASEAN Countries Benefit from Smart Solid Waste Management Solutions?
Geo-tagging of each property in a municipal area will record the daily activity between garbage collector and households. The use of intelligent dumpsters eliminates the need to physically inspect each container, resulting in fuel and cost savings. Garbage collection businesses and municipalities can better deploy their limited resources as a result of this decrease.
Another feature that SMW System offers is real time GPS tracking of waste pick up vehicles which helps in route optimization. Also, the use of real-time data to schedule the waste pickup trucks reduce the carbon footprint.
The smart waste management system relies on geo-specific data analysis, which is utilized to track garbage generation patterns across regions. According to the Internet of Things (IoT) data analysis, customers can get demographic information and take action based on the district’s occupancy patterns accordingly.
Conclusively, a smart waste management solution improves every step of the traditional waste collecting process. And that’s also the need of an hour for all Southeast Asian countries to overcome their problems related to waste management.
Adopting modern solid waste management processes has become essential for all nations worldwide. Proper waste management can result in better recycling of waste and ultimately assist municipalities in transforming cities.
How can Convexicon India help?
When it comes to the best and most reliable smart waste management solutions, Convexicon is without peers in its area of work. Convexicon is the leading IoT-based waste management solution provider. The company develops customized innovative/digital waste management solutions for government and corporate clients in India and abroad.
It has provided innovative solid waste management solutions to various municipalities in India and other countries, including in countries of Asia and Africa. Convexicon is now ready to offer its services in Southeast Asian countries and help them have effective waste management!
If you’re interested in cutting costs and increasing efficiency, you have arrived at the right place. Convexicon can help you with the state-of-the-art IoT-based solutions that will increase the efficiency of your operations and result in significant cost savings.