European Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol. 7 No. 2, 2019 ISSN 2056-5860 Progressive Academic Publishing, UK Page 46 www.idpublications.org DEVELOPMENT OF A SMART, AUTOMATED WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Nkolika O. Nwazor (PhD) Electrical/Electronic Engineering Department, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State NIGERIA nkolika.nwazor@uniport.edu.ng Nafiu Ibrahim Electrical/Electronic Engineering Department, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State NIGERIA naftalks@yahoo.com Olanrewaju K. Seun Electrical/Electronic Engineering Department, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State NIGERIA olanseun@yahoo.co.uk ABSTRACT Indiscriminate dumping of refuse is a very big challenge in our societies today. It comes with the challenges of environmental pollution and degradation, wasting of scarce land, disease outbreaks and destruction of aquatic life to mention a few. Efficient waste management is therefore a very important factor if a country will have sustainable ecological development. The Smart Waste Management System proposed in this work seeks to address this. The system comprises the Power Supply, the State Sensors, the output display, the load driver, the load, the communication module and the control unit. The power supply supplies 12V dc to the relay and 5V dc to the microcontroller and its electronics components. The state sensors sense the state of the system and send the information to the control unit. The state sensors was implemented using limit switches, Light Emitting Diode and Light Dependent Resistor. The Output Display helps the users and the operators to know the state of the system and to take instructions on the actions required of them. Liquid Crystal Display was used to implement the output display. The Load Driver was used to drive the load and was implemented using relays interfaced to the controller via ULN2003. The Load represents the motor that drives the door mechanism of the smart waste bin. The Communication Module informs the operator when the waste system is filled up. This was implemented using SIM 900 module. The Control module coordinates the activities of the entire system and was implemented using Atmel microcontroller. If the system is implemented, it will contribute immensely to the ultimate goal of making our cities litter free and can also serve as a source of revenue generation. Keywords: Smart, Waste management, control. INTRODUCTION Waste management has been a major challenge facing every nation. Waste management is more than just collecting waste. It is the collection, transport, processing, recycling, disposal and monitoring of waste materials (Belien et al, 2011). As the world population increases, the situation is getting worse as the amount of wastes generated also increases. Modernization and industrialization are also not helping issues as they also come with the challenge of increased wastes. With the increased waste generation comes the challenge of waste disposal. The main goals of waste management are reducing waste production; ensuring that wastes are properly disposed and recycling and re-using disposed products. The common methods of waste disposal especially in the rural areas are dumping on the ground, burying under the ground, burning of flammable wastes and disposal in running waters or drainages. It is not