New technology that uses artificial intelligence (AI) may have homeowners in the Central Okanagan thinking twice about what they put into their curbside garbage and recycling bins.
Chad Evans is a recycling truck driver and says hazardous materials are ending up in the truck far too often.
“Every day,” he said. “Probably one in 10 bins.”
It’s hoped those numbers can be reduced with a new system being used across the Regional District of Central Okanagan (RDCO).
Called ‘Prairie Robotics’, the system involves mounted cameras that capture images of material going into the recycling trucks.
“As the bin is being emptied into the truck, that is when the hundreds or thousands of pictures are being taken and that’s getting sent back to our system,” said Brody Hawkins, district manager for Environmental 360 Solutions (E360s), the company contracted for curbside pickup by the RDCO.
“What that system does with those pictures is it uses AI to monitor all the contamination.”
The technology is then able to track the contaminated material back to the home involved.
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“We use the GPS coordinates of the garbage bin to identify the address,” said Hawkins.
The RDCO then sends an information postcard to that address.
The postcard is meant to act as a warning but one that could be followed by fines if the problem persists.
“They have an image of what the truck is seeing, so they can see exactly what they put in there that doesn’t belong and some more information,” said Cynthia Coates, supervisor of solid waste services for RDCO.
Some of the hazardous material that is still ending up in curbside bins too often range from corrosive, flammable, or poisonous items to less obvious things like batteries and battery operated devices, such as e-cigarettes, power tools, and smoking alarms.
According to Coates, propane tanks are also being discarded in the bins.
“I’m seeing notification of fires at both our landfill and in our trucks and in our recycling facilities more than ever,” Coates said. “So I think it’s becoming more prevalent than ever.”
In July, a fire erupted in the hopper of a recycling truck in Kelowna.
The driver was forced to dump the load in a nearby parking lot.
A metal fuel filter improperly placed in a recycling bin was the suspected cause.
Right now, four of the seven E360s recycling trucks are equipped with the new AI technology.
The new system will be installed in the remaining three in the coming weeks.
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