A Design and Implementation Using an Innovative Deep-Learning Algorithm for Garbage Segregation
Authors: Gunaseelan Jenilasree , Sundaram Sujatha , Mariyappan Bhuvaneswari 
Published: September 2023

A startling shift in waste composition has been brought on by a dramatic change in lifestyle, the quick expansion of consumerism brought on by fierce competition among producers of consumer goods, and revolutionary advances in the packaging sector. The overflow or overspill of garbage from the bins causes poison to the soil, and the total obliteration of waste generated in the area or city is unknown. It is challenging to pinpoint with accuracy the specific sort of garbage waste; predictive image classification is lagging, and the existing approach takes longer to identify the specific garbage. To overcome this problem, image classification is carried out using a modified ResNeXt model. By adding a new block known as the “horizontal and vertical block,” the proposed ResNeXt architecture expands on the ResNet architecture. Each parallel branch of the block has its own unique collection of convolutional layers. Before moving on to the next layer, these branches are concatenated together. The block’s main goal is to expand the network’s capacity without considerably raising the number of parameters. ResNeXt is able to capture a wider variety of features in the input image by using parallel branches with various filter sizes, which improves performance on image classification. Some extra dense and dropout layers have been added to the standard ResNeXt model to improve performance. In order to increase the effectiveness of the network connections and decrease the total size of the model, the model is pruned to make it smaller. The overall architecture is trained and tested using garbage images. The convolution neural Network is connected with a modified ResNeXt that is trained using images of metal, trash, and biodegradable, and ResNet 50 is trained using images of non-biodegradable, glass, and hazardous images in a parallel way. An input image is fed to the architecture, and the image classification is achieved simultaneously to identify the exact garbage within a short time with an accuracy of 98%. The achieved results of the suggested method are demonstrated to be superior to those of the deep learning models already in use when compared to a variety of existing deep learning models. The proposed model is implemented into the hardware by designing a three-component smart bin system. It has three separate bins; it collects biodegradable, non-biodegradable, and hazardous waste separately. The smart bin has an ultrasonic sensor to detect the level of the bin, a poisonous gas sensor, a stepper motor to open the lid of the bin, a solar panel for battery storage, a Raspberry Pi camera, and a Raspberry Pi board. The levels of the bin are maintained in a centralized system for future analysis processes. The architecture used in the proposed smart bin properly disposes of the mixed garbage waste in an eco-friendly manner and recovers as much wealth as possible. It also reduces manpower, saves time, ensures proper collection of garbage from the bins, and helps attain a clean environment. The model boosts performance to predict waste generation and classify it with an increased 98.9% accuracy, which is more than the existing system.