Hello everyone, how is your holiday going? It's been another great year with another great celebration coming soon. Well, I have been busy shopping around and celebrating Xmas with my family. Sometimes we just need to relax and self-reflect on ourselves, which I am gladly doing it for another new challenges. This time, I went to Singapore for X'mas celebration because of the Disney decoration. Partly also because my children asked me to bring them.
At the same time, I am also thinking is there a way to maintain the cleanliness of the city, when there are thousands and thousands of visitors coming to check out the X'mas decoration? Well, let's see....yes. Now let's see what "smart" alternatives we can use to recycle instead of using the conventional ways.
How To Recycle Smartly?
Do you ever find yourself hovering over a recycling bin, not sure whether the container in your hand can go in or not? What is the difference between high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) anyway? Why do plastics all have the little arrow triangle sign on the bottom, even when they can’t all be recycled? People are confused about where to recycle things, and consumers are confused about the actual material the packaging is made of. There are hundreds of materials out there that look the same, but can’t be recycled in the same ways.
Nowadays, the trend is clear that the use of pervasive computing technology has taken place to improve waste management by providing electronic system which utilizing radio frequency identification at bin level.
What Are The Differences?
A new “smart” recycling bin aims to help relieve any confusion. The bin uses computer vision—an algorithm that can “learn” to recognize images much the way the human brain does—to identify the material held in front of its cameras, and then tells the consumer exactly where to place the container.
A smart recycle bin application based on information in the smart card to automatically calculate the weight of waste and convert the weight into point then store it into the card. The wastes are tracked by smart bins using a RFID-based system integrating the web-based information system at the host server. Two crucial features of the selective sorting process can be improved using this approach. First, the user is assisted in the application of material waste classification. Second, the smart bin knows its content and can report back to the rest of the recycling chain.
What Is The Way To The Future?
I envision the smart bins as working like this: a consumer goes to a Starbucks and orders a latte in a paper cup (or a juice in a plastic bottle, or a milk in a carton, etc.). Once he's finished, he goes up and taps his phone against the bin, registering his identity with the bin app via Bluetooth. He then holds his cup over the bin’s cameras, which take two photos. The computer vision identifies the material and lights up the correct area of the bin. The user then gets a reward via the app. That reward would depend on the bin’s owner or sponsor. In a Starbucks, for example, it could be points towards a free coffee. But it could be anything: charity donations, free merchandise and so on. If the user didn’t want to use the app or register his identity, he could simply use the computer vision to help them know where to toss his cup.
Smart recycling containers that reward people for proper use could help drive up the rate of plastic recycling, reducing the amount of plastic that goes into oceans and landfill, and creating business opportunities out of the challenge to cut back on waste. It’s part of a wave of innovations aiming to keep plastic circulating in the economy, which also include a way to turn empty bottles back into raw materials and a new supply chain model enabling the recycling of plastics from electronic waste.
Who Should Champion It?
Whether or not people recycle has a lot to do with cultural norms. Homeowners—residents of single family housing—have adopted the cultural norm of putting their recyclables on the curb on collection day. However, they are not always doing this right. So while we have created this cultural norm of participating, we still need to do work on recycling right. In public spaces and multifamily housing, the cultural norms to recycle are not as strong. Where there’s more anonymity, there’s less pressure to participate.
I hope that smart recycle bin will help create a cultural norm around recycling in public spaces, especially when paired with the app. Users, especially millennial, may enjoy the validation they get from recycling and earning rewards. I think the bin will appeal to corporations, who are under increasing pressure to be seen as sustainable.
It’s a win-win for companies, which could use the bins to gather valuable data about customer habits, whether its individual consumer data gathered through the app, or simply data about how much or what kind of waste is recycled.
Technology does have a role in improving recycling, though it’s not as important as the human education element. But the most important challenge remains ensuring you and I are doing it right.
