Making robots go through our garbage could be useful, though it could also be what prompts robots to turn on humans.
We’re several days away from trash day in my neighborhood.
So, for now, I’m doing my best to put garbage in the garbage can, recycling in the recycle bin and food waste in the compost pile.
It’s not a hard job, though it does take some time to get everything in its right place.
And eco-experts say one of the biggest problems we have with recycling is that people don’t always put everything where it’s supposed to go.
Sometimes it’s hard to know whether a particular container or wrapper is recyclable.
In other cases, people are in a hurry and just toss everything into one bin or another, even if it’s not the right bin.
Here’s a potential solution: the TrashBot!
It’s a project from a tech startup in San Francisco, and when you toss an item into TrashBot, the system’s internal sensors figure out what the item is, and which bin to send it to.
No recyclables in the trash, no trash in the recyclables.
The catch is that you can only toss in one item at a time, and it can take a few seconds to sort each item.
Users would have to slow down to make sure everything gets where it supposed to be.
But isn’t that kind of what we’re supposed to do already?
Officials in Prichard, Alabama missed something when sending out their new trash bins for residents: a typo.
The new cans, sent out late last year, say the town is in “Mobile Country” instead of “County.”
The community isn’t going to replace them, though.
After all, it’s not like you can just throw the extra letters away.
This robot trash bin automatically sorts your recyclables for you (Fast Company)
Embarrassing typo on new Prichard trash cans (NBC 15)
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Photo by adrimcm via Flickr/Creative Commons
