#WhyIMake: Invent a TrashBot to Reduce Trash and Simplify Recycling

Why do you make?

CleanRobotics MAKES so our crazy, inventive, energetic, constantly-consuming, forward-moving, on-to-the-next-best-thing society can properly unmake. In such a fast-paced world, it’s not hard to believe that the U.S. leads the world in waste production, and that much of that waste ends up in landfills despite being perfectly recyclable. To combat this problem, we created TrashBot, a robotic waste-sorting trashcan whose purpose is to help reduce our landfill waste by diverting reusable trash into the recycling stream.

What lit the spark?

During our travels, we visited some of the most incredible wonders of the world. The Great Pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Mahal, the Mayan Ruins... At all of these destinations, there is one common thing that stands out. In every direction you look, there is trash. It was here, standing among piles of tourists’ litter, trying to marvel at the achievements of our Earth’s past civilizations (while contemplating our own) that we decided we needed to do something – make something – that could help solve this problem.

How did it lead you to making prototypes and different models?

We knew we had to make recycling simpler if we wanted to see a change. With discrepancies between the rules and regulations for recycling from one town to the next, contamination is one of the biggest causes of perfectly recyclable material ending up in landfills. We had to design a system that did the work of recycling for you, but was still as mindless as throwing away a banana peel. This led to redesigning how humans would interact with a trashcan, developing the appearance of TrashBot, and testing an array of different types of sensors. Eventually, we landed on a design that looks simple from the outside, but performs 100% accurate waste-sorting on the inside.

How did you get started on this robotics project?

With the rough idea for a robotic waste-sorting trashcan in mind, all we had to do was...build a robot! Luckily, we live in Pittsburgh, PA, home of Carnegie Mellon University, NREC (National Robotics Engineering Center) and RI (Robotics Institute). Thanks to some fortuitous connections and the help of a few good friends, we quickly recruited a robotics expert, got into AlphaLab Gear (a nationally ranked accelerator program based in Pittsburgh), won an Infy Maker Award, was accepted into HAX (the world’s first and largest hardware accelerator in Shenzhen, China), and assembled a team of amazing people dedicated to developing robots that can help us create a cleaner, greener earth.

What is next for your project?

We are working on perfecting our prototype and piloting it this year. After the piloting stage, the knowledge we gain through user feedback and sensor data will be used to expand TrashBot's sorting capabilities into more and more diverse categories (plastics, glass, cardboard, metals, compost, landfill, etcetera!).

Are you taking it to market?

Absolutely! Any business located in any city throughout the nation will be able to buy our product, enabling them to send higher quantities of superior quality recyclables to their Material Recovery Facilities. Three companies have already signed on as early adopters – an airport, a convention center, and a Fortune 500 company. They will be piloting the system with the option of becoming future customers this year.

Do you have another “making” venture in the works?

Though not "in the works" just yet, our future projects include modifying TrashBot for use in the home, office, and beyond!