E-waste information management system

40 E-WASTE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Madhuranga, H.A.H1, Fernando, W. M. N. 2 [email protected] 2[email protected]c.lk Background Electronic waste management is an essential element of environmental sustainability yet has been paid less attention to be managed with the support of information systems. All electronic equipment contains a range of substances that are harmful if the devices are not disposed of properly. Heavy metals such as mercury, lead and cadmium, antimony, beryllium, arsenic and brominated flame retardants are present within these devices. These substances have been linked to many grave illnesses and disorders in human beings and have a devastating impact on other organisms if they are released into the environment. Therefore, electronic waste (e-waste) or the technological devices that reach their end of life span has become a big issue as they could not easily recycle like normal waste and contain toxic elements. Electronic appliances such as mobile phones, computers, and televisions are the devices that are commonly identified as e-waste at the end of their active use. E-waste management has to pay special attention to waste collection, transportation, disposal or recycling and monitoring of waste compared to the normal waste. Proper information on those activities always make e-waste management successful and support environmental sustainability. E-waste management in Sri Lanka is still not up to the standard compared to normal waste management. Government authorities, mainly the municipal councils have looked into the issue of waste and garbage management identifying the information technology-based solutions (Weerasinghe 2018). The focused Mahara provincial council (Mahara Pradeshiya Sabha) is currently using a manual system to collect and dump waste around the area. The waste collection happens using a tracker which collects normal and e-waste without separating them. The current system does not have a proper system to educate citizens to handover e-waste separately to the council and the council does not have any idea as to how to manage e-waste even though the citizens give e-waste separately to the council. 41 System Analysis Problem Analysis Electronic waste is a major problem for environmental sustainability that is found difficult to manage in provincial councils in Sri Lanka. Due to exponential growth in domestic e-waste in developing countries and increasing end-of-life span products in developed countries, the e-waste has become an issue for human life (Rupasinghe 2012). According to Mallawarachchi and Karunasena (2012), the absence of a special framework and infrastructure for recycling and lack of export/import regulations are some of the factors affecting electronic waste management. South Asia Co-operative Environment Program (SACEP) in 2007 showed that lack of public awareness on government responsibilities, complex information flows, poor legislative, trade rules and ineffective regulatory mechanisms are some of the causes for issues in electronic waste management. Though a majority of e-waste is being discarded through regular waste streams due to lack of proper legislation and public unawareness information systems are found to be a promising solution in developing long term strategies for e-waste management (Fernando & Rupasinghe, 2017). Sri Lankan companies such as Hatton National Bank and LB Finance have started manual systems to collect ewaste and lead them to proper disposal (Kumara 2012; DailyFT 2014). A mobile application has been developed and implemented to manage and dispose of normal garbage in Sri Lankan municipal councils (Weerasinghe 2018). However, a proper information system for e-waste management in Sri Lanka is still lacking. In particular, the Mahara provincial council is currently facing difficulties in e-waste management. Requirement Analysis The system expected to equip with the functional requirements such as, two system log-in for admin and citizens who registered with the system, Logging to the system as user or admin, insert citizens details and the user can insert information, insert(save), reset(delete) and(update), View account details and logout account Requesting form – request for the dispose garbage, feed-back, suggestion and inquire form Map provide dispose areas. 42 Objectives of the Proposed System The main objective of the proposed system is to enhance online communication between registered citizens and provincial council people on e-waste management and to develop a web-based system for e-waste related documentation handling and ubiquitous information sharing in a secured environment. System Design User interface design The system consists of several interfaces such as home interface requests, complaints and feedback form for the citizens. Additionally, the interface for system admin can be used to control it from the side of the Provincial Council. Figure 1: Main Interface Data design The conceptual data design identified seven entities and relationships between them. The relational schema for the relational database for the system was identified by mapping the conceptual design to logical design. 43 Process design Interaction of admin and citizen as main users to the system is explained in the diagram. This depicts the relationship between the user and the different use cases in which the users are interacting with in the system System Development The development environment consists of tools for developing, testing and debugging an application or program. Adobe Dreamweaver and visual studio code were used as the IDE to develop user interfaces and program codes. The web-based system testing was done in the WAMP environment. The e-waste information management system was developed using the HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP. The seven table schemas identified in the logical database design were used to develop a physical database with the support of MYSQL admin in the WAMP environment. Several test cases are manually tested in the system. 44 Figure 2: ERD for e-waste information management system 45 Figure 3: Use case diagram E-waste Information Management System Conclusion The e-waste information management system is an asset for Mahara Provincial Council. The system will increase the information management related to e-waste in the area and make the process easy by linking citizens and provincial council authorities. The decision making in the provincial council will be easy since all the information is maintained in one location and there is an ability to generate various reports. With the support of web access, the users can connect to the system from anywhere through a secured link to the council and view, browse and upload information related to e-waste. The project design and developing took place with time and resource restrictions. Therefore, only three modules were developed within the allowed period. The operationalization of the e-waste management process beyond information management is not discussed in the report as its part of the proper implementation of the whole process. The sustainability of the e-waste 46 management is the ultimate expectation of the Mahara Provincial Council. Thus, the information system could be improved further to incorporate points earning systems for citizens that will encourage them to use the system. References DailyFT 2014, ‘Supportive hand from LB Finance to ensure an e-waste free Sri Lanka’, DailyFT, 6 June, < www.ft.lk/article/303270/Supportive-hand-from-LBFinance-to-ensure-an-e> Kumara, L 2012, ‘HNB-launches-e-waste-campaign’, DailyFT, 11 October, <http://www.ft.lk/article/114223/HNB-launches-e-waste-campaign>. Mallawarachchi, H & Karunasena, G 2012b, ‘Electronic and electrical waste management in Sri Lanka: Suggestions for national policy enhancements’, Resources, Conservation and Recycling, vol. 68, no.2012, pp. 44–53. Rupasinghe, TD 2016, ‘A Conceptual Framework for E-waste Management through Reverse Logistics: A Case Study from Australia’, International Journal of Operations and Logistics Management, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 190-211. w3schools.com, 1998, ‘JavaScript Tutorial’, < https://www.w3schools.com/js/default.asp >. Weerasinghe, A 2018, SmartTrash: Solving Sri Lanka’s Waste Management Problem through Technological Innovation, < https://medium.com/@anudaweerasinghe/smarttrash-solving-the-wastemanagement-problem-through-technological-innovation-d5a46ec3bce3>.