Smart bins for enhanced resource recovery and sustainable urban waste practices in smart cities: A systematic literature review

Waste collection bins with smart capabilities play a crucial role in contemporary urban landscapes, forming integral components of efficient and sustainable waste management practices worldwide. This paper conducts a thorough review of state-of-the-art smart bins, emphasizing advanced features such as material separation and integrated automation. The analysis, based on 79 selected articles from a pool of over 1400 publications, underscores critical gaps in the existing literature. While a widely accepted common ground that outlines the definition for smart bins exists, in the form of waste disposal containers incorporating functionalities such as filllevel monitoring and IoT connectivity, this research identifies substantial areas for improvement. Specifically, material separation practices, including automated waste segregation, and the overall maturity of conceptual frameworks present significant challenges, hindering the optimization of resource recovery essential for pioneering circular economy models. Moreover, a lack of uniformity and standardization in automation techniques is apparent across studies. Various articles propose divergent approaches, each with distinct advantages and drawbacks. Notably, no unified solution emerges that could harness collective strengths and mitigate shortcomings. Identifying these issues is paramount for advancing the field and tackle sustainability-related challenges within modern smart cities.