Edust
TURNING WASTE INTO SMART DATA
The problem Edust solves
ChatGPT said:
The Smart Bin Monitoring System is an IoT and web-based platform designed for municipalities to manage waste collection efficiently. It connects smart bins with a MERN stack dashboard using Blynk to provide real-time monitoring, driver assignment, and route management.
What people can use it for:
Municipalities can monitor all dustbins across the city in real time, get alerts when bins are full, and assign nearby drivers quickly.
Drivers can check which bins are full, get assigned bins directly, and avoid wasting trips to half-empty bins.
Citizens benefit from cleaner neighborhoods and reduced health risks from overflowing garbage.
How it makes tasks easier and safer:
Smart bins send fill level data automatically so there is no need for manual checking.
Each bin is shown on the map with a clear status: green for safe, yellow for nearly full, and red for overflowing.
Admins can assign drivers directly from the dashboard and drivers get instant updates.
Routes can be planned to save fuel and reduce collection time.
Overflowing bins are avoided, making cities cleaner and healthier.
Why this project is useful:
Traditional waste collection happens on fixed schedules, which often means half-empty bins are cleared or overflowing bins are missed. This project makes the process data-driven, reducing costs for municipalities, effort for drivers, and improving cleanliness for citizens.
Challenges we ran into
One of the biggest challenges was connecting the IoT bins with the web dashboard. The bins were sending sensor data to the Blynk cloud, but making that data flow into the MERN backend in real time was tricky. At first, I faced issues with webhook setup because the backend was running on localhost and Blynk required a public URL.
Another hurdle was dependency conflicts in the frontend. Packages like react-leaflet and recharts had version mismatches with React 18, which caused build failures. This slowed down development until I fixed the versions and reinstalled with legacy peer dependencies.
I also struggled with authentication and role-based access. Setting up JWT authentication with roles for staff, admin, and drivers required careful planning to ensure correct permissions and routes.
To solve these problems, I used ngrok/localtunnel to expose my backend for webhook testing, locked down package versions in package.json to prevent conflicts, and modularized authentication logic for cleaner role handling. Each step helped me stabilize the system and make it reliable for demo.
Technologies used