SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC PANEL COMPACT BIN: A PRELIMINARY SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT IN UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA PAHANG

Globally, waste keeps increasing every year due to several factors. Thus, managing this waste will be considered a major economic and environmental challenge. The idea of developing the compact solar energy bin with an intelligent system could reduce the burden to the environment, as well as the cost associated with waste collection activity. The built-in system with an Arduino microcontroller was applied to monitor the level of fullness and triggered automatic compacting. This may increase the capacity of the bin up to 5 times. The results indicate that transportation costs could be reduced by at least 30% and Global Warming Potential impact decreased from 18.5 tonnes to 6.2 tonnes annually. The Solar Photovoltaic Panel Compact Bin has the potential to support not only waste management, but has an edge in the economy and the environment.