PITTSBURGH (PTTP) – Trashbot, created by Pittsburgh based company CleanRobotics, uses advanced AI technology to sort recyclables according to material and to eliminate human error. According to the 2021 Consumer Recycling Habits survey by the Paper and Packaging Board, fewer than half of Americans understand the basics of recycling. This is heavily due to the complex and confusing regulations around recycling which can vary greatly even between municipalities.
“There’s actually about 74 to 75 percent of our landfill that could be recyclable, we’re really missing a large piece of the puzzle in regards to what’s happening at the point of disposal,” Castelveter said. “TrashBot is really created to take that decision away from the human itself and allow the robotics to automate and sort.”
In addition to sorting recyclables, TrashBot can also track the fullness of trash bins in real time. Places like airports often struggle with efficient trash removal, either taking out the trash too often or letting trash overflow for too long.
“Like for example, Wednesdays at 6 am there’s a bunch of flights that come in from China, and a bunch of people throw stuff away and all your bins are full at that time.” said Galvez, “You might want to hire more people at that time, or get real time alerts like, ‘hey, bin 76 is full or TrashBot 76 is complaining,’ then they know and they don’t just have to wait until somebody walks by.”
In the wake of AI technology, the question is: how can we humans still make a difference? Galvez suggests a rather easy way one can make a positive impact on an individual level to create a more effortless and efficient recycling process.
“Next time you throw away your water bottle, just try to empty out the water from it,” said Galvez, “or if you throw away an aluminum can, throw out whatever’s left, and you’re going to improve the process in general a lot.”