Two brainy teens from Vancouver want their peers to talk trash. And the duo's recent invention could begin a recycling revolution in their schools.
High school students Amy Bach and Sunny Huynh recently created an intelligent garbage can that sorts waste for you using odor sensors and impressive artificial intelligence. It's called Bin Genius — and it certainly is a smart move forward in waste management.
Per a CBC report, Bach and Huynh were inspired to create Bin Genius after noticing a problem in the lunchroom. Their peers had a habit many students around the globe share — dumping their school lunches in the garbage instead of sorting them for recycling and composting.
"Students normally in schools … they just throw everything in without any afterthought about what happens to the waste," Huynh told CBC.
A recent waste composition study out of Vancouver found that nearly one-quarter of waste bound for area landfills was actually compostable organic material. That's a whole lot of waste that could be better managed.
Diverting this waste from landfills begins at the source — garbage bins. But how do you make people care about composting and recycling? It's a question that many environmentalists have asked at one time or another — including Bach and Huynh.
"We want to … educate students and help them improve their waste-sorting habits," Bach told CBC.
Bin Genius uses odor sensors and cameras to identify all organic waste and recyclable items thrown away. If a compostable or recyclable item is thrown into trash headed for landfill, a red alert light illuminates and a small beep sounds to alert the user of the error.
The hope is users will be encouraged to correct their recycling errors by moving that orange peel to the compost or throwing that drink container into the recycling.
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Along with the physical smart garbage can, Bach and Huynh also created an app to help users track their waste and common sorting mistakes. The app also has an educational game for anyone looking to up their recycling and composting knowledge.
To train the smart bin's AI, Bach and Huynh used 5,000 images to help the algorithm recognize different types of trash. The pair says their prototype has an 80% sorting accuracy.
Using AI for waste management is an emerging solution to the globe's garbage problem. Recently, Forbes highlighted emerging industrial tech used by major sorting facilities, calling AI a "powerful tool to help sort waste and divert recyclable materials away from landfills." But Bin Genius also has company in the home market, with inventions like the Finnish trash scanner Binit.
Bin Genius was recently selected as one of five finalists in the Science Fair Foundation's Youth Innovation Showcase competition. Though the invention didn't win the $5,000 grand prize, Bach and Huynh plan to continue work on their prototype in hopes of implementing it in area schools.
The pair told CBC that implementation in all 107 elementary and secondary schools in Vancouver would cost about $100,000. But they're hopeful that Bin Genius could help lower the city's $42 million per year waste collection budget.
In a video showcasing the invention, Bach said, "We've put in a lot of effort to create Bin Genius and get where we are now, and we're very grateful for the opportunity to promote sustainability and waste sorting education."
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