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Surely you have ultra-wideband radios on your bins too?

147 points · 81 comments · simonjgreen

  1. alexaholic · · focus · HN ↗
    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.

    Shocking, I know.

    1. criemen · · focus · HN ↗
      Just 5? Lucky you, here (depending on how you count) we're doing 13 fractions.
      1. simonjgreen · · focus · HN ↗
        That’s nuts. Where is ‘here’?
        1. Tade0 · · focus · HN ↗
          Sounds like Switzerland - different bin for each colour of glass - at least in Zürich.
          1. mdurana · · focus · HN ↗
            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.
          2. lifestyleguru · · focus · HN ↗
            A good Swiss citizen starts their day with going through neighbors' trash and reporting any segregation mistakes.
      2. seb1204 · · focus · HN ↗
        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.
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