Prelude
As part of PS9888 Making & Tinkering which is a summer module required to be taken by CN Yang Scholars in which we embark on “designing, making and building something ‘fun’ and maybe useful”, Team BinMax is making a smart recycling bin.
Current recycling rates in Singapore are dismal to say the least, and we are hoping that our project can at least play a small part in changing that. Two of the key factors are contamination of recyclables and incorrect recycling, which is not solvable by just telling people to recycle or putting up recycling bins everywhere. At first glance, these factors may not seem that relevant, but we have come to realise that throughout our education in Singapore, we have always been taught the 3Rs, but never on what exactly we can recycle beyond just the general materials. Although other smart bins do exist, none of them actually alleviate this issue of a lack of education. Additionally, they are very costly, making it difficult for widespread implementation (e.g. Bin-e’s smart recycling bin).
To tackle this, our smart bin, which we term as “BinMax” (inspired by Baymax from Big Hero 6) aims to not only encourage people to recycle more but also educate them on what can and cannot be recycled and to know whether a recyclable item is contaminated. This will be done through a kiosk style interaction with BinMax, where BinMax is able to classify the item being thrown using Computer Vision and then interacts with the user to ask a series of questions to determine and educate the user on the item’s contamination status.
Two key parts of BinMax is the software and the AI model, which can be seen in the video embedded below, were developed by me during the circuit breaker since they were the only parts that were feasible to work on given the circumstances.
But of course this project would not be complete without an actual physical BinMax and that is what Team BinMax will be tackling next in the remainder of summer now that the country has reopened, so stay tuned!
Origin
The inspiration for BinMax comes from a dinner one day with our circle of friends, when one of them suggested that we should make a Baymax while we were throwing around ideas. Of course a normal Baymax, one’s personal healthcare companion was not going to cut it, and it would be impossibly hard to make a robot especially for healthcare, but we thought it was an idea worth exploring.
One of our group’s common interests was the environment and we wanted to do something that was with the environmental theme, with the knowledge of CY1007 Climate Change still fresh in our minds. As I had experience working with AI and Solomon had experience with hardware and robotics, the idea of a smart recycling bin was floated around even before the Baymax suggestion came about. So when the Baymax idea popped up, things just clicked and BinMax was born. Instead of “Baymax, your personal healthcare companion”, it would be “BinMax, your public recycling companion”.
The very basic idea was to create a recycling bin that was able to tell the user what the item that the user was holding using AI and direct it to the proper hole to put it in. There would be two bins in BinMax, one for recyclables and another for another general purpose bin for non-recyclable trash. This would align with the National Recycling Programme’s system of collecting mixed recyclables and sorting them out later.
We were also made aware of a recent article on the fact that Singaporeans are not recycling much and that one of the main causes of this issue was that we did not know what can or cannot be recycled, especially when it comes to contamination. We can have hundreds of recycling bins all over Singapore but if people throw contaminated items into them, then the other recyclable items get contaminated and nothing can be recycled in the end. In order to solve this, rather than just access to recycling bins, Singaporeans need education on recycling.
Existing Smart Bins
The idea of a smart recycling bin is not new, so we looked up online on what already exists. Let’s explore some existing first before explaining why we ended up with our end product.
| Existing Bin | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| NUS: Bin Point | Webcam used to scan QR code from mobile app to access bin and also record user information Find nearest bin using mobile app | The hole is too small to be functional for larger recyclable items The user does not learn what can or cannot be recycled Rather plain and unattractive |
| Bin-e Smart Waste Bin | Automatic compression of paper and plastic Fill level detection Automatic sorting Mobile app to show fill level | The user does not learn what can or cannot be recycled |
| Cambridge Consultants Smart Bin | Sleek design | Not too intuitive on whether items can be recycled or not No communication beyond what bin to throw in the item |
There are other bins around, but the general issue is that these smart bins are not making the users smarter. As the saying “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” goes, once the users learn properly what can and cannot be recycled, there would not be a need for every single recycling bin to be smart. Also, these bins make no mention of contamination, which is a major issue in recycling.
Vision
Due to all these reasons and not wanting to just copy a design and have the bare minimum, our idea of BinMax became a smart recycling bin that is able to educate the user on whether an item can or cannot be recycled and whether it is contaminated. Also, we feel that having the user throw the item themselves gives the user a feeling of empowerment and fulfillment, rather than just letting the bin sort the item itself. Only with such features would BinMax be a true public recycling companion.
Having a mobile application helps too, since everyone is on their phones these days, so we decided to have a companion app as well.
We also noticed that all the solutions that currently exist focus solely on the users and not the caretakers. They still have to manually check the bins to see if they were full. This should not be the case, not in this age of technology. So we also decided to make a Telegram bot for the caretaker to easily access information on how full the bins are in Binmax.