Living with a stink? Technology might help

Milpitas, an affluent city in California’s Silicon Valley tech hub, has been dealing with an odor problem for decades. Residents have long endured rank smells that drift from industrial sites, including a 342‑acre landfill. Chia‑Ling Kong, an engineer for a tech firm who lives about half a mile from the dump, recalls, “When I first moved here, I could not open my window for over 10 years.” Although conditions have improved in recent years, Kong says she and her neighbours still face roughly two or three hours of bad smells each day.

Perhaps fitting for Silicon Valley, the community is placing its hopes in technology. Local authorities have ordered the operators of Newby Island landfill to use drones and install monitors that systematically track and measure the chemicals causing the odours. They have also been told to automate the collection of landfill gases responsible for the smells. Kong is optimistic that a data‑driven approach will help. “Hopefully with this continuous monitoring, it makes it easier to pinpoint problems at the moment it starts,” she says. The landfill operators state they are committed to operating the site safely and protecting air quality.

Milpitas is not alone. Around the world, communities are raising a stink about bad smells that make daily life miserable. Sources can be rubbish dumps, sewage treatment works or reeking factories. Resolving these complaints is often complicated because many countries lack regulations dictating how to manage odours. In the United States, for example, the Environmental Protection Agency does not classify environmental odours as a pollutant, leaving the issue to state and local governments. Urban sprawl frequently brings homes closer to facilities that were once kept at a distance, increasing the demand for technologies that monitor and prevent smells.

Odour consultant Micheal Bull notes that people are increasingly worried about neighbourhood stinks. “You’re getting developments being built nearer to odorous processes… as land