I live in the EU, where I have five separate waste streams: glass, paper, plastic/metal, RVM plastic, and general trash. They all fill at different rates, while the collection schedule is essentially nondeterministic. The only reliable signal is that they arrive at 6 a.m. sharp in trucks specifically engineered to maximize acoustic output.
My solution is similarly overengineered: a vision system combined with an olfactory system feeds into a biological neural network, which monitors the bins and determines when intervention is required.
The neural network is annoyingly power-hungry, occasionally unreliable, and has yet to support OTA firmware updates. I also have a Home Assistant as a backup for when the neural network fails. It provides a gentle nudge that perhaps the bins need taking out.
Same for Germany, but those don't get picked up, you go and throw them into different bins at a collection point (which is why you usually have all the glass in one bag). I'd say Germany has way more separation than Zürich. We have 4-5 at most.
Please elaborate and educate us. I might be missing a stream but where I live we have three. But most people ignore any rules AND complain when costs go up.
> The only reliable signal is that they arrive at 6 a.m. sharp in trucks specifically engineered to maximize acoustic output.
This gave me a chuckle. It seems almost every where in the world this is true. Ofcourse it is quiet outside around that time, amplifying the effect, but I am always amazed why loud things always need to happen so early. Maybe I should become a morning person, but prefer dark, silent nights for concentration.
In my area half the issue is cars being parked on the way, which is why the truck has to approach the bins in reverse, which is particularly loud.
The other half is buildings being spaced 7m apart, because that's the minimum allowable at this height. The echo is enormous.
That being said it's still more tolerable than the people absolutely punching it through our 30km/h street with their modified exhausts and windows rolled down - as if the point for them was to lose hearing as fast as possible.
EVs these days typically have speakers that produce loud noise at low speeds, louder than a lot of ICE vehicles. I had to bypass a couple on my vehicle before it would actually be quiet. That had the nice side effect of disabling the beep when I lock the doors, too (which wasn't necessary anyway as I can already hear the locks + see the ambers flash).
> It seems almost every where in the world this is true.
The metropolitan area near me have had electric trash trucks for some years (<a href="https://www.sustainabletruckvan.com/renault-trucks-clean-city-barcelona/" rel="nofollow">https://www.sustainabletruckvan.com/renault-trucks-clean-cit...), which when you walk near them, are shockingly silent, for how large and bulky they still are. I'm not sure how many been deployed, the "old" ones are still all over the place, and noisy as everywhere else, but surely these "Renault Trucks E-Tech D and D Wide electric trucks" they talk about must have been deployed elsewhere too?
for me it's not the truck that's that loud... it's the shaking of the trash can and dropping it on the pavement to fall over that makes the noise
So we have organic waste (food scraps, etc; green bin), recycling (blue), and everything else ("garbage"; black). Organics/green gets picked up every week, blue and black alternate (always on the same day: so one week green+blue, next week green+black).
For hazardous stuff you take it to a depot or wait for a city community event nearby:
This past year the provincial government made it so that municipalities do not have to handle recycling anymore, but it is now the responsibility of the manufacturers ("producer responsibility model")
Oh this wouldn't work in many countries like those in the global south. Everything would just go into the garbage bin because it's less of an inconvenience. It's best to force people into rigid unambiguous categories like plastic, paper, food etc. Without giving them an ambiguous option like recyclables, like no one knows what is recyclable.
No, he's referring to using the human body, brain, and nose to figure out when to take the trash out to the street, with Home Assistant giving a reminder.
Key word is "annoyingly" One plugs into the wall and only requires maintenance(electrical bill) once a month. The efficient one permanently attached to you requires maintenance several times a day.
alexaholic · · focus · HN ↗
My solution is similarly overengineered: a vision system combined with an olfactory system feeds into a biological neural network, which monitors the bins and determines when intervention is required.
The neural network is annoyingly power-hungry, occasionally unreliable, and has yet to support OTA firmware updates. I also have a Home Assistant as a backup for when the neural network fails. It provides a gentle nudge that perhaps the bins need taking out.
Shocking, I know.
criemen · · focus · HN ↗
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Tade0 · · focus · HN ↗
mdurana · · focus · HN ↗
lifestyleguru · · focus · HN ↗
seb1204 · · focus · HN ↗
thenthenthen · · focus · HN ↗
This gave me a chuckle. It seems almost every where in the world this is true. Ofcourse it is quiet outside around that time, amplifying the effect, but I am always amazed why loud things always need to happen so early. Maybe I should become a morning person, but prefer dark, silent nights for concentration.
Tade0 · · focus · HN ↗
The other half is buildings being spaced 7m apart, because that's the minimum allowable at this height. The echo is enormous.
That being said it's still more tolerable than the people absolutely punching it through our 30km/h street with their modified exhausts and windows rolled down - as if the point for them was to lose hearing as fast as possible.
lostlogin · · focus · HN ↗
Bring on the EV revolution.
They’ll find some other way of inserting themselves though.
grogenaut · · focus · HN ↗
LoganDark · · focus · HN ↗
embedding-shape · · focus · HN ↗
The metropolitan area near me have had electric trash trucks for some years (<a href="https://www.sustainabletruckvan.com/renault-trucks-clean-city-barcelona/" rel="nofollow">https://www.sustainabletruckvan.com/renault-trucks-clean-cit...), which when you walk near them, are shockingly silent, for how large and bulky they still are. I'm not sure how many been deployed, the "old" ones are still all over the place, and noisy as everywhere else, but surely these "Renault Trucks E-Tech D and D Wide electric trucks" they talk about must have been deployed elsewhere too?
grogenaut · · focus · HN ↗
throw0101a · · focus · HN ↗
In Toronto, Canada (and Ontario generally?) we use single-stream recycling:
* <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-stream_recycling" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-stream_recycling
So we have organic waste (food scraps, etc; green bin), recycling (blue), and everything else ("garbage"; black). Organics/green gets picked up every week, blue and black alternate (always on the same day: so one week green+blue, next week green+black).
For hazardous stuff you take it to a depot or wait for a city community event nearby:
* <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/recycling-organics-garbage/community-environment-days/" rel="nofollow">https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/recycling-organics-...
This past year the provincial government made it so that municipalities do not have to handle recycling anymore, but it is now the responsibility of the manufacturers ("producer responsibility model")
* <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling_in_Canada#Ontario" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling_in_Canada#Ontario
* <a href="https://www.circularmaterials.ca/what-is-epr/" rel="nofollow">https://www.circularmaterials.ca/what-is-epr/
Is there a reason why all these separate streams are used where you live?
bmaupin · · focus · HN ↗
alightsoul · · focus · HN ↗
MonkeyClub · · focus · HN ↗
catoc · · focus · HN ↗
QuercusMax · · focus · HN ↗
catoc · · focus · HN ↗
azan_ · · focus · HN ↗
I don't think it's power hungry at all! Benchmark it's energy use against SOTA, you will be surprised.
somat · · focus · HN ↗
ozyschmozy · · focus · HN ↗