Urban Waste Tracker

Abstract

This paper presents the design and development of an Urban Waste Tracker — an intelligent, IoT-integrated and AI-powered system for real-time monitoring, collection routing, and citizen reporting of municipal solid waste (MSW). Rapid urbanisation has created enormous pressure on waste management infrastructure in Indian cities, resulting in overflowing bins, delayed collection cycles, and environmental degradation. The proposed system addresses these challenges by combining Internet-ofThings (IoT) sensors embedded in public dustbins with a cloud-connected mobile and web application that enables citizens to report waste accumulation, track collection vehicle routes, and view live bin-fill status. An Artificial Intelligence engine processes historical fill-rate data and predicts optimal collection schedules, thereby reducing fuel consumption and operational cost. The back-end is built on Node.js with Express, the mobile front-end on React Native, and the data layer on Firebase Realtime Database. Pilot testing across a simulated urban ward demonstrated a 35% reduction in missed-collection events and a 28% improvement in route efficiency. The results confirm that the platform can serve as a scalable, cost-effective backbone for smart-city waste governance.