DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL AND MECHATRONICS

Effective waste management remains a critical challenge in many urban and rural communities, particularly in developing countries where improper disposal contributes to environmental pollution and public health risks. This project focuses on the design and fabrication of a waste segregation system aimed at improving the sorting of municipal solid waste at the source. The system is engineered to automatically separate waste materials into distinct categories such as biodegradable, non-biodegradable, and recyclable components using a combination of sensors, mechanical components, and control mechanisms.
The design incorporates affordable and locally available materials to ensure cost-effectiveness and ease of replication. Key components include a conveyor mechanism, sensing units for material identification, and sorting bins for categorized waste collection. The fabrication process involved assembling the mechanical framework, integrating electronic control systems, and testing the functionality of the system under different waste conditions.
Performance evaluation of the system demonstrated its ability to accurately segregate waste with improved efficiency compared to manual sorting methods. The results indicate that the system can significantly reduce human effort, minimize environmental hazards, and enhance recycling processes. This study concludes that the developed waste segregation system is a practical and sustainable solution for improving waste management practices, and it holds potential for adoption in households, institutions, and small-scale industries. Effective waste management remains a critical challenge in many urban and rural communities, particularly in developing countries where improper disposal contributes to environmental pollution and public health risks. This project focuses on the design and fabrication of a waste segregation system aimed at improving the sorting of municipal solid waste at the source. The system is engineered to automatically separate waste materials into distinct categories such as biodegradable, non-biodegradable, and recyclable components using a combination of sensors, mechanical components, and control mechanisms.
The design incorporates affordable and locally available materials to ensure cost-effectiveness and ease of replication. Key components include a conveyor mechanism, sensing units for material identification, and sorting bins for categorized waste collection. The fabrication process involved assembling the mechanical framework, integrating electronic control systems, and testing the functionality of the system under different waste conditions.
Performance evaluation of the system demonstrated its ability to accurately segregate waste with improved efficiency compared to manual sorting methods. The results indicate that the system can significantly reduce human effort, minimize environmental hazards, and enhance recycling processes. This study concludes that the developed waste segregation system is a practical and sustainable solution for improving waste management practices, and it holds potential for adoption in households, institutions, and small-scale industries.

With an increase in the world’s population, and a rapid quest for urban living, management of solid waste has proven to be a serious challenge of modern times. Activities like change in consumption patterns, rapid industrialization and many more contributes to an increase in the complexity of waste generated. This is more experienced in domestic settings, such as schools, homes, offices, where different types of waste, ranging from leftover food to plastic and paper are found in large amounts; Hence the need for proper waste handling and management. Often times, a large amount of wastes gotten from these environments are collected without proper segregation, especially at the source. These wastes usually contain combinations of organic, recyclable and sometimes harmful substances. In many developing countries, i.e. Nigeria, Ghana etc. the wastes are transported to dumpsites where the sorting is later carried out. This method of manual sorting is very ineffective, and could also lead to many health risks for workers sorting the wastes, due to unhygienic practices and poor working conditions. This limits recycling and proper waste management, which could be important for the country.