British startups use AI to improve the efficiency of garbage collection, tracking 32 billion pieces a year
CTOnews.com, July 3, according to BBC, data from the World Bank show that the world produced about 2.24 billion tons of solid waste in 2020, and this figure is likely to increase by 73 percent to 3.88 billion tons by 2050.
▲ source Greyparrot UK startup Greyparrot has set its sights on this waste. The company is trying to use AI to monitor and analyze waste recovery in order to improve the efficiency of waste recovery and provide more reliable advice to the entire industry chain. At present, Greyparrot has placed cameras above the conveyor belts of about 50 recycling stations in Europe and uses AI software to analyze the waste passing through the conveyor belts in real time.
Despite the rapid advances in AI image recognition technology, Mikela Druckman, the company's founder, says it is still difficult to train AI to identify rubbish: "products like Coke bottles get crumpled, crushed and soiled once they get in the dustbin, which complicates the problem from AI's point of view."
Greyparrot tracks 32 billion pieces of waste every year and has created a huge digital map of waste. Waste managers can use this information to improve operational efficiency and to share information more widely. In 2022, the company raised a financing of 10.2 million euros (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 80.682 million yuan).
"this system enables regulators to better understand the state of the materials, which materials have problems, and this can affect the packaging design of the goods," Mr Druckerman said. " She hopes that big brands and other manufacturers will start using data generated by companies such as Greyparrot and eventually design more reusable products.
In addition to environmental protection, Greyparrot's work also has considerable economic potential. According to a study last year, 1.3m e-cigarettes are thrown away every week in the UK alone, meaning about 10 tonnes of lithium enters landfills each year, enough to provide raw materials for 1200 car batteries.
However, Druckerman says the value of this case is not to recycle lithium materials, but to involve deeper economic and environmental thinking: "instead of asking us how to recycle them, ask why we use disposable e-cigarettes in the first place."
