PRE2016 3 Groep17

Concept: Street-level garbage sorting system

Team members: Ava Swevels, Lisan Wolters, David Elshove, Vansh Kharbanda, Johan Kon & Thomas van de Wiel

How to use this page

In this wiki, a weekly update will be given on the progress of the group. The total Wiki is therefore divideed into weekly modules. At the end of the project, the conclusions and results will be given, as well as a discussing of the concept and an evaluation of the group process.

Week 1

Selection of idea

The first idea we had was to make an educational application in which we would make several short lectures for last year secondary school students. With the knowledge they gained, the could then make a working robot from a package of parts. By doing this, we would show the students how fun an engineering education can be, in order to make them seriously consider higher education in a technical institute. However, it proved to be hard to distinguish our idea from the existing "stichting techniekpromotie", which does pretty much the same thing.

We then thought of a a societal problem which really needs to be solved, such that we could think of a solution that could solve it. We came up with the following. Garbage sorting is a huge problem in society. Not sorting your garbage has a serious impact on the environment. Some team members indicated that especially students omit sorting their waste. What if we could solve this problem by making a bin that automatically sorts your waste, once you throw it in? Then we figured that this bin would become rather big because of all the sensors and the actual sorting system, and that most students would not have room for this. Furthermore, it would be an expensive solution for which the target audience probably wouldn't want to pay. But since students are mostly clustered in an area, we could scale up the idea to come across this problem. What if we make a garbage sorting system on street level, similar to already existing underground trash cans ([1]), but in which you can throw all garbage at once if you did not sort it. This way we avoid high costs for the user, while maintaining the benefits for society. This idea got the groups approval and was thus selected for further investigation. The group decided that it wanted to do a study on the possible effects of such a system and to develop a working (scaled down) prototype of the system.

A literature study to similar existing systems is done, as well as a study to the possible societal impact of such a system. Furthermore a presentation is be prepared in order to get green light for the execution of the idea. To visualize the idea and to add convincing power, a 3D CAD-model is made. The model will also serve as a step up towards the prototype and to make sure all team members are talking about the same concept. A discussion will be given below.

Existing alternatives

This section reviews the state of the art and related work relevant to our research. A list of the current knowledge in the field of our research has been made. The used sources are listed below.

There already exist several automatic sorting trash cans, each has their own purpose and implementation. The first sorting bin we will discuss is the Auto-Trash from Jay Donovan. This was a technical craft project to sort between compostable items and recyclable items. They have used a Raspberry Pi module, which was equipped with a camera to detect and recognize each item placed on top of the can’s rotating top. Image recognition was used to distinguish the items, and then the item is sorted appropriately (Donovan, 2016) . Our product differs since it will be implemented on larger scale, namely on the level of the municipalities and not on the level of personal houses. Furthermore, our product will be able to sort the items in more different categories and it will also be able to sort several items at the same time. Therefore the user does not have to adapt to throw his trash one by one into the bin.

The second sorting bin is the R3D3 from the company Green Creative. This is a very small and compact bin which can be placed in public spaces and in work areas. This bin accepts one item at a time, then it detects and recognizes the item and then, after compressing the item, it is sorted appropriately. This bin accepts 3 sort of items, namely cans, disposable cups and plastic bottles. When the bin is almost full, the garbage collector will get an alert to empty the bin (Green Creative, 2017). Our product will have different features than this bin, and therefor will have an added value. Our product will be on a larger scale, as stated before and our bin can also sort other materials. Furthermore our product will also be able to compress the waste and it can also alert the garbage collectors when the storage space is almost full. This way they will never have to make a trip to collect a half-full garbage storage unit, which saves money.

The last sorting bin differs from the first and second one in terms of scale. This bin is developed by Sintef, a Norwegian research team. They have developed a sorting machine for waste on a large scale, namely on factory-level (Sintef). The sorting machines use spectography and infrared light to analyse the materials in a product. Then the items are identified and sorted into various divisions (Sciencenordic). Our sorting machine differs since we won’t implement our machine at this level, but on a lower level, namely in the municipalities. This is more convenient, since a lot of cities already have underground waste container, thus the sorting can take place in these containers. Therefore transport will be reduced, since the waste does not first have to be transported to a factory to sort it, and then transported to the factory where the materials will be recycled.

Evaluation concept with repect to USE

Our automated sorting trash cans will have impact on users, society and enterprise. Not every household will have an own automated sorting trash can. It will only be place on a limited amount of places in the municipalities.

For some of the users of the product it will make sorting easier. Nowadays we have to sort our trash in a lot of different containers. These containers can be replaced by only one container. If the trash bag is full the trash will be thrown into an automated sorting trash can. This will reduced the amount of containers households will have as well as the amount of effort needed. While we do not need to know in which container we need to sort which material. In some municipalities there is a penalty for sorting wrong. If a person has thrown something in the wrong bin, even without noticing. This person can get a penalty(Tilburg). This problem will get solved for the user, while he/she cannot throw trash in a wrong container. “ “It’s really beneficial for individuals to sort their trash at home so it can be recycled. This enables them to contribute to a better environmental utilisation of the resources in the trash,” says Political Advisor Audun Garberg at the Ministry of the Environment. ” (Sciencenordic). This refers to an impact which can happen, but must be avoided as much as possible.

The society will have more assurance that trash is sorted correctly. It is humanly to make a mistake when you try to sort your waste yourself. Besides there are still a lot of people who do not sort their trash. All the thrash which is not sorted now, will be sorted in the future, which is better for the environment while more products can be reused/recycled (Milieucentraal). In the beginning this invention will be an investment for society, but this will later earn itself back. While there is less transport needed. With this automated sorting trash cans not all household will have their own container, but only limited places in the municipalities will have these. This will shorten the route of the garbage trucks. More materials can be reused as well while all trash will be sorted correct. This increases the amount of materials we can reuse instead of producing them again, we can save money as well (Tilburg).

For enterprise this product will change the work for companies which collect the garbage. Garbage containers will not be placed at all houses, but only at one point of the street. There will be sensors included, with which can be measured whether the garbage container must be emptied. This will change the route the garbage men need to take to collect the garbage. It will also change how many times they need to empty some of the garbage containers. This can be checked every day.

Presentation of ideas

The presentation will be given on Thursday 16/02 between 13:45 and 17:30 in the Metaforum building, room MF08.

CAD-mockup

Some pictures of the CAD-mockup can be found below.

Trimetric Trimetric.png

Bibliography

Donovan, J. (n.d.). Auto-Trash sorts garbage automatically at the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon. Retrieved February 09, 2017, from https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/13/auto-trash-sorts-garbage-automatically-at-the-techcrunch-disrupt-hackathon/

Green Creative, R3D3 smart and connected sorting bin. (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2017, from http://www.green-creative.com/en/r3d3-sorting-bin

Sintef. (n.d.). Automatic sorting of waste for recycling. Retrieved February 09, 2017, from https://www.sintef.no/en/projects/automatic-sorting-of-waste-for-recycling-/

Sciencenordic, Machines are better than people at sorting household trash. (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2017, from http://sciencenordic.com/machines-are-better-people-sorting-household-trash

Tilburg, controle afvalscheiding, retrieved February 12, 2017 from https://www.tilburg.nl/inwoners/afval/controle-afvalscheiding/

Milieucentraal, afval verwerken, retrieved February 12, 2017 from https://www.milieucentraal.nl/minder-afval/afval-scheiden-en-recyclen/afval-verwerken/

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Week 2