City using artificial intelligence to limit recyclable contamination
By Lethbridge Herald on July 15, 2024.
A City worker demonstrates a collections truck collecting a blue cart while AI technology processes data on Monday morning at the City collection truck garage.
Herald photo by Justin SibbetJustin Sibbet – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Artificial intelligence (AI) may have to wait to take over the world, but in the meantime, it is being utilized by the City of Lethbridge to make waste streams cleaner and work conditions safer.
Lethbridge’s waste and environment teams will be using cameras and AI technology inside of some of the waste collections trucks for the next year. This pilot project will see approximately 25 per cent of the city’s collection affected by the new technology, according to James Nicholls, waste and environment collections manager with the City of Lethbridge.
Nicholls says the City is expecting the AI to detect unwanted materials when a bin is dumped into the collections truck, aided by three new cameras.
“Once that material has been deposited into the (truck), that camera up at the very top is looking directly down, capturing the materials that are being deposited into the (truck),” said Nicholls.
“Then, at the end of the day, that imagery is sent into the system. AI detection technology is utilized to review that footage to determine if any of those materials (are contaminants).”
The technology being used in the trucks is from the Canadian company, Prairie Robotics, which has been operated by various other municipalities successfully, such as Regina, Medicine Hat and recently Leduc, according to Nicholls.
The need for this, he says, is fairly high as there has been an increase in lithium-ion batteries in the blue recycling carts, but other materials are also being watched for.
“What we’re looking for, mainly, are things like bag materials, household hazardous waste, batteries… tires, as well as yard waste material,” said Nicholls.
Nicholls says residents are doing well when it comes to disposing of recyclable materials, though there is always room for improvement.
“Residents of Lethbridge are doing a really good job overall in sorting their recyclables correctly,” said Nicholls. “This program is just looking to get that last little bit of non-compliant material out of the blue cart and into the right stream.”
In fact, he says 87 per cent of material recycled in a blue cart last year was exactly where it should have been, but this program will target the remaining 13 per cent.
Furthermore, he says this is a cheap method that is also expected to be effective.
“We’re looking at about nine cents per audit, which is a really exciting figure.”
More than just money, Nicholls says this will also increase safety for crews working with the City.
“Over the last few years, since we introduced curbside recycling in 2019, we would actually have staff going and manually checking carts for signs of contamination.”
He says this is the industry standard method, but it does come with inherent risks, such as contaminated materials coming into contact with workers, or sharp objects potentially causing injury, though the new technology will reduce risk and increase productivity.
“It also allows (City crews) to cover a lot more ground.”
Nicholls confirmed the employees who would typically do this work have been offered new opportunities within the City and were not laid off.
“Those particular staff have been reassigned to other tasks,” said Nicholls.
When it comes to residents’ safety and privacy from this AI technology, Nicholls says there is nothing to worry about.
“(This technology) will blur out license plates and people automatically. So, if a person happens to be caught in a particular shot or a license plate is caught in a shot, that imagery is actually blurred out before our staff even see that,” said Nicholls. “Just an added layer of privacy in terms of capturing that data.”
For residents who fail to follow guidelines on best recycling practices, Nicholls says they will receive notices, then verbal warnings, visitations from City staff and eventually, upon severe escalation, the loss of their recycling carts.
“We can get to a point where we will actually send out letters to that particular household, letting them know that if this particular behaviour doesn’t stop, they could actually lose access to that blue cart.”
However, he says this would be an extreme circumstance and it will not be the normal method chosen by the City.
“We’re not looking to bring down the hammer right off the hop,” said Nicholls. “We like the carrot; we don’t like the stick nearly as much.”
To date, Nicholls says there has never been a cart privilege revoked by the City of Lethbridge.
The pilot project will run until the spring of 2025.
29-28
Don’t penalize me for what you find in my bin. It sits unlocked in the alley, anyone could throw a dead cat in there without my knowledge. Or a dead lawnmower…
Beware, Zen. They are watching you, as they corral you into the 15-minute city like Agenda 21 zombies.
[…] Source. […]
How about put it all in a black bin, pickup weekly and have A.I. sort it at the landfill? 100% compliance.