Do you know that e-waste is considered the fastest-growing waste stream in the world? According to the Global E-waste Monitor Report in 2020, 53.6 million metric tons of e-waste were generated worldwide in 2019.
As technology has fueled our society, e-waste presents a rapidly-growing environmental problem. The amount of e-waste generated yearly is increasing due to higher consumption rates, shorter life cycles, and fewer repair options. Oddly, the hope for a more sustainable future lies in using technology to address the e-waste crisis.
This article will explore the future of e-waste and the solutions to help make our electronics landscape more sustainable.
Defining E-Waste
E-waste (Electronic Waste) refers to discarded electronic products. These products may be no longer in use, not functioning, outdated, and approaching or have reached the end of their “useful lifespan.” E-waste includes anything from consumer electronics like smartphones and laptops to industrial electronics like electric vehicle batteries and solar panels.
The Environmental, Economic, and Social Impacts of E-Waste
The improper disposal of e-waste has significant environmental, economic, and social implications. E-waste contributes to carbon emissions, and improper disposal means throwing away valuable resources.
Environmental Impacts
Climate change: the production and disposal of electronics contribute to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions.
Water and soil pollution: improperly discarded e-waste also leads to soil and water pollution due to toxic substances like lead and mercury in devices.
Resource depletion: nearly all electronic devices contain precious metals in trace quantities. Since precious and rare earth metals are scarce, not recycling these products can lead to resource depletion.
Economic Impacts
The increased cost of healthcare: the environmental impact of e-waste can lead to health issues like congenital disabilities, respiratory problems, and neurological disorders, leading to increased healthcare costs.
Loss of valuable resources: improper disposal leads to a loss of valuable resources, resulting in low supply and higher costs.
Social Impacts
Human rights violation: e-waste is often shipped to developing countries where it is processed under hazardous working conditions. Workers are routinely exposed to toxins, and many human rights, such as forced and child labor, are violated.
Disproportionate distribution of waste: low-income communities and communities of color are often unjustly exposed to e-waste, as most waste management facilities are near these communities.
Managing E-Waste
Following the waste management hierarchy, here are ways to properly manage electronic waste.
Reduce
The best way to minimize e-waste is by re-evaluating your decision to upgrade electronics. Before making a purchase, ask yourself if you truly need to upgrade. Additionally, buy products with a longer lifespan and multiple functions. Leading a minimalist lifestyle can help you leave a smaller carbon footprint.
Reuse
If you can’t avoid purchasing new electronics, consider donating or selling your old devices. If they’re still functional and in good condition, you can most likely find someone who needs them more than you do. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also issued a guide on electronics donation and recycling.
Recycle
Electronics recycling is an excellent way to avoid contamination and conserve valuable resources. However, it’s a complex and expensive process; in 2019, only 17.4% of e-waste was collected and recycled.
What makes this process complex is the nearly 60 elements from the periodic table that are present in the e-waste stream, including hazardous materials. Products that include various materials are generally difficult or impossible to recycle. And there still needs to be more knowledge and understanding about handling e-waste. Not only should e-waste be appropriately sorted, but the different streams must be dealt with individually.
Electronics include gold, silver, copper, platinum, and other high-value raw materials. When we dump or burn electronics instead of recycling or reusing them, we’re wasting valuable resources. We can recover 35 thousand pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold, and 33 pounds of palladium for every million recycled cell phones.
Safely Dispose
Discarding tech is still sometimes unavoidable, and if that’s the case, we must ensure the safe disposal of devices. Generally, governments and local communities provide guidelines on safe waste disposal for electronics.
EPR – Extended Producer Responsibility for Waste Reduction
EPR is a protection strategy aiming to reduce the environmental impact of a product and its packaging. It considers all estimated ecological costs associated with a product and requires producers to take responsibility for the entire product lifecycle. Container-take-back programs are one example of EPR, where consumers generally pay a small extra fee when purchasing a product that is refunded when they return the container to the retailer. Asking the industry to take back products at the end of a product’s life encourages it to design products to enhance their reusability. It also incentivizes the development of designs that boost recyclability and minimizes the impact of products that could otherwise remain in and pollute the waste stream. EPR programs are becoming more and more established throughout the world and will help ensure industry accountability.
The Role of AI and Technology in the Future of E-Waste
An average person in the United States generates approximately 20 kg of e-waste annually. New York City alone generates nearly 14 million tons of e-waste each year. Now, more than ever, we need an efficient system to deal with e-waste.
Electronics recycling becomes much easier and more efficient with a well-sorted waste stream. Researchers think AI and machine learning can help significantly with recycling these products. AI and ML algorithms are training and improving by the day, and they work with up to 90% accuracy in identifying electronics.
Innovative tech startups are also creating solutions to recover, recycle and reuse the core components of technologies. Solarcycle, for example, is one company looking to solve the climate tech waste problem. Launched last year in Oakland, California, it has since constructed a recycling facility in Texas where it extracts 95% of the materials from end-of-life solar panels and reintroduces them into the supply chain.
In a world where technology becomes obsolete within months, it’s no wonder we have an e-waste crisis. We must drastically change our electronics habits, hold the industry accountable for their products, and support innovation to sustainably manage e-waste now and in the future.
Landfills have been around for centuries. The very first landfill dates back 3,000 BC to Knossos, Crete (modern-day Greece), where people used to dig holes in the ground to dispose of refuse. Currently, the U.S. represents nearly 4% of the world population but is responsible for 12% of the global municipal solid waste (MSW). The current recycling rate in the U.S. is 32%, and more than half of the MSW still ends up in landfills.
This article discusses landfills, their impact, and how data and technologies can help maximize landfill operations and reduce emissions.
Landfill Emissions and Their Impacts
Landfills are designed mainly to dispose of waste that cannot be recycled, reused, repurposed, or composted. The types of waste that typically end up in landfills include municipal solid waste (MSW), construction and demolition debris, and industrial, electronic, medical, and hazardous waste. The waste in landfills undergoes decomposition, producing both liquid and gaseous byproducts.
Landfill emissions can be broadly classified into three categories: greenhouse gases, organic compounds (VOCs), and toxic air pollutants. Greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide are produced during the decomposition of organic waste in landfills. Methane, in particular, is nearly 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. On top of that, landfill emissions can also produce leachate (a toxic liquid), contaminating the soil and groundwater.
In the United States, MSW landfills are the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions. These emissions not only contribute to climate change but lead to various other environmental and social issues. In 2020, the methane emissions from MSW landfills were equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from about 20.3 million passenger vehicles driven for a year.
However, these harmful methane emissions can be captured and utilized as a significant energy source.
Data as a Tool for Evaluating Landfill Operations
It’s difficult to imagine landfills having a place in the circular economy. But data can play a critical role in making landfills safer and more efficient and in reducing their emissions. Data can help us understand the scope and source of emissions, track emissions reduction, and identify areas of improvement.
Here are a few ways data can improve landfill operations and help reduce emissions.
Emissions inventories: Data can be used to develop landfill emissions inventories, which compile information on the quantities and sources of greenhouse gas emissions from various sectors. The inventories track emission changes over time and provide a baseline for measuring progress toward emissions reduction goals.
Monitoring and reporting: Monitoring and reporting landfill emissions regularly can help identify areas where emissions can be reduced or controlled. Sophisticated monitoring can detect anomalies in daily operations, enable timely repair of methane leaks, support emissions reduction, and validate abatement strategies.
Identifying sources: Detailed data on landfill emissions can be used to identify the most significant sources of emissions, like methane and other GHG’s, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and toxic air pollutants. This can inform targeted emission reduction strategies and evaluate their effectiveness over time.
Evaluating technologies: Data can help evaluate the performance of various technologies used to reduce landfill emissions, such as methane capture and utilization systems.
Predictive modeling: Data can be used in predictive modeling to identify areas where emissions reductions are more likely to have a significant impact and then develop reduction strategies accordingly.
Public health assessments: Landfill data can assess the potential health impacts of landfill emissions on nearby communities. The information can further underscore strategies (like improving ventilation or implementing a buffer zone) to mitigate the impacts.
Education and outreach: An important use of data is to educate the public about the overall impacts of landfills. This can promote behavior change that leads to waste reduction at both the individual and community levels.
The Role of Data and Technology in Landfill Rehabilitation
Unregulated MSW landfills can cause a significant negative impact on the environment and community health. The decomposition of organic materials in landfills results in landfill emissions, leachates, pollution, odor, and the spread of disease. Landfill rehabilitation and smart landfill management are the answers to these problems and will ensure we only have safe, effective landfills.
Upgrading landfill systems can help transform a toxic space into a valuable community asset. According to a report from RMI, rehabilitating simple dump sites to sanitary landfills equipped with gas and leachate collection systems and other environmental controls will enable the capture of methane emissions and improve public health and safety.
Regulating and upgrading landfills also drives necessary change to the industry, transforming it from one whose priority is profit to a waste management system that is focused on resource recovery. In a recent issue of Municipal Solid Waste Management Magazine, Parker Dale, President of Bio-Organic Catalyst, says,
“The old model was to make money off the dumping fees. And then as you had renewables, the value of the gas was recognized and better management began to seep in and you had the evolution of the industry and more sophistication in management to support the mechanism of action that was really biological. Now it’s about optimizing the carbon cycle to essentially turn the whole thing into useable converted waste, producing useable resources such as compost and methane.”
Innovation to Support Responsible Landfill Operations
The World Bank reports that global waste is expected to grow by 70% by 2050. While source reduction remains the best method for reducing our dependency on landfills and combatting emissions, landfills won‘t be going away soon. As a significant part of waste management, we must use data and technology to ensure landfills’ efficacy and long-term sustainability. From developing emission inventories to monitoring and reporting to landfill rehabilitation, data has the potential to reduce landfill emissions and help us recover as much value from them as possible.
While the sustainability movement continues to make huge waves across multiple industries, companies leading the charge are under an enormous amount of pressure to be transparent about what actions they are taking.
Consumers committed to change are demanding the same from companies, and they are becoming more vocal about their lack of trust in companies’ sustainability claims. A survey by Genomatica showed that nearly 9 in 10 consumers (88%) don’t immediately trust brands that say they’re sustainable.
The Bank of America labeled Gen Z (born between 1995 and 2010) as the most disruptive generation of our time. Thanks to the internet and social media, these digital natives are tech-savvy and customarily make informed purchasing decisions. Their ability to connect, convene, and create disruptions through their keyboards and smartphones has the potential for global impact. These are the generations that are questioning authority and compelling real change.
The Deloitte Global 2021 Millennial and GenZ survey showed that millennials and GenZ, as consumers, often put their wallets where their values are. They support companies based on how they treat the environment, protect consumer data, and position themselves on social and political issues. Bank of America also predicts that Gen Z’s income will surpass that of Millenials, and younger generations are focused more on sustainable shopping than on buying from popular companies.
In the business world, the consumer is king, and businesses are making moves toward sustainability to gain favor with customers. However, many companies are putting up a facade rather than doing real good. The act of exaggerating a company’s environmental credentials is known as greenwashing. Even large companies like Coca-Cola, Nestle, and H&M have been criticized for waste generation and pollution while claiming to commit to the climate cause.
A McKinsey report found that Gen Z values authenticity and ethical consumption practices. This gives companies a financial incentive to appear more socially conscious, which can lead to greenwashing. For example, a company in Australia marketed disposable diapers and diaper disposal bags as “100% biodegradable” while they contained plastic components that only broke down into smaller pieces. The company was ordered to publish a corrective advertisement and establish a trade practices compliance program by the ACCC (Australian Competition & Consumer Commission).
Make a Difference by Investing in Waste Diversion Technology
The world is becoming increasingly aware of the environmental impact of our waste. To that end, more and more organizations are committing to sustainability goals for their waste management. However, traditional waste management practices can often hinder sustainability efforts, leading to contaminated recycling streams and inefficient use of resources.
Here are a few ways that companies can demonstrate their sustainability commitments by investing in waste diversion systems, technologies, and data.
Implement a waste diversion system that separates waste streams into different categories.
Adopt waste reduction strategies, for example, using reusable or compostable packaging solutions.
Tracking waste data can help companies keep a record of waste generation and diversion rates to monitor their progress toward sustainability goals.
Conduct regular waste audits to identify areas where waste can be reduced, such as through source reduction, recycling, or composting.
Engage employees and stakeholders in waste diversion efforts by providing hands-on training.
Smart waste management solutions like TrashBot help companies with waste diversion and can qualify their sustainability commitment. TrashBot is a smart bin that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify and sort recyclables from non-recyclables in a waste stream, and with TrashBot’s technology, it can learn and adapt to new items over time. It also comes equipped with a dashboard that shows real-time data on a facility’s waste stream and provides on-demand waste audits.
TrashBot is designed to improve recycling and composting rates through accurate sorting at the source. It can also empower a facility’s zero-waste vision.
Technologies like TrashBot are an excellent waste management solution for brands and companies that want to demonstrate their sustainability commitment. Not only does it help improve recycling rates, but companies can collect data from the waste stream and track their progress. This data-driven approach to smart waste management can bolster a company’s sustainability position and show the public concrete impact to back up stated promises.
Tanner Cook, Co-Founder at CleanRobotics, joins Builder Nation Podcast host Elisa Muñoz to share his experiences as a leader in the waste management and recycling industry and the insights he has gained from his broad experience in mechanical engineering.
This interview was brought to you by BuilderNation, the community of Hardware leaders developing world-changing products, and sponsored by ControlHub, the purchasing software for hardware companies.
Waste management and recycling are crucial practices for environmental sustainability. Waste management involves collecting, transporting, and disposing of waste materials, while recycling involves processing waste materials into new products. By reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfills, these practices help conserve natural resources.
CleanRobotics is one of the companies at the forefront of transforming the industry. Their innovative technology employs robotics, AI, and machine learning to improve waste sorting and recycling accuracy, efficiency, and speed.
This blog post will delve into the waste management and recycling industry and the technologies for automated waste sorting and recycling, with a particular focus on CleanRobotics.
Waste management and recycling
Waste management and recycling is a rapidly growing sector of the economy, driven by the increasing demand for sustainable waste management practices. The global waste management market is projected to reach $542.7 billion in revenue by 2026.
However, the environmental impact of waste management and recycling practices must be addressed. Landfills, for example, produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. In contrast, recycling reduces greenhouse gas emissions by conserving natural resources and reducing energy consumption.
Proper practices can reduce the impact of pollution and provide numerous benefits for the environment and society, such as reducing pollution, conserving natural resources, and creating jobs. By reducing the amount of waste in landfills, these practices also help extend the lifespan of existing landfills and reduce the need for new ones.
In addition, recycling reduces the need to extract new raw materials from the environment, conserves natural resources, and minimizes the environmental impact of mining and other extraction activities. Recycling also reduces energy consumption, as it requires less energy to process recycled materials than it does to process raw materials.
The demand for sustainable waste management practices drives the development of new technologies and innovations, such as advanced waste sorting systems and new recycling processes. These data-driven approaches are helping waste management companies improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and increase recycling rates.
CleanRobotics
CleanRobotics is an innovative company that creates sustainable waste management and recycling solutions. They strive to make recycling smarter and revolutionize the industry by introducing new and innovative solutions, helping achieve zero waste goals by introducing smart, data-driven approaches that empower decision-making.
CleanRobotics solves the confusion around waste disposal, which leads to contamination of recyclables and high recycling costs, thus creating a greener tomorrow. Their flagship product, Trashbot™, is a smart trash can that sorts recyclables from everyday trash and provides data on trash and recycling to update waste management processes dynamically.
TrashBot
TrashBot is an intelligent recycling bin developed to address the challenges of waste management and recycling. It is an innovative solution that combines AI, robotics, and machine learning to sort waste at the disposal point. Its purpose is to increase sorting accuracy and reduce contamination rates while educating the public about recycling best practices.
This robot helps improve waste management and recycling. It weighs about 250 pounds or 113 kilograms and is around 73 inches or 185 centimeters tall. The unit’s dimensions are 44 x 23.5 x 48 inches (112 x 60 x 122 cm), and the monitor on top is 43.5 x 25 inches (110.5 x 58 cm). Its total capacity is 80 gallons or 304 liters, but the exact capacity of each bin depends on the system configuration. TrashBot uses 250 to 400 kilowatt-hours of electricity with moderate to heavy use.
Benefits
Higher diversion rates: TrashBot helps facilities increase sorting accuracy to 96%, compared to the 30% accuracy of conventional bins. This means more materials get recycled, reducing landfill waste and associated environmental harm.
Cost-effective recycling: with the help of TrashBot’s innovative technology, facilities can reduce contamination, avoid recycling fines, and achieve a positive impact on the environment, leading to more cost-effective environmental programs and a greater return on investment.
User recycling education: TrashBot features a large 55-inch screen that can display educational content or advertisements, helping to educate the public about recycling best practices and increasing awareness of sustainability initiatives.
Positive environmental impact: TrashBot’s technology helps reduce landfill waste and associated ecological harm, positively impacting the environment.
Composting: TrashBot can increase waste composting by 200% or more by diverting organic waste into the appropriate bin.
Features
Recycling AI and robotics: TrashBot uses robotics, computer vision, and machine learning to detect and separate landfill waste from recyclables. When an item enters TrashBot, a perception system captures and identifies the item’s image and classifies it by type of waste, diverting it to its respective bin.
Waste data and analytics: TrashBot captures high-quality data and generates analytics for on-demand, exportable waste audits. With our intuitive dashboard, users can monitor the bin’s capacity, track diversion rates, notice trends, and make strategic decisions.
Fullness notifications: TrashBot monitors its internal capacity and triggers SMS or email notifications for the custodial team when it’s complete, reducing the need for manual monitoring and increasing efficiency.
Customizable AI for compliance: TrashBot’s AI technology can be customized to ensure compliance with local regulations and waste management policies.
Cloud connectivity: TrashBot’s waste data is stored in the cloud, allowing smart bin fleets to become more intelligent over time and ensuring that facilities always have access to real-time data and insights.
Dynamic content: TrashBot provides real-time, adaptable feedback and engaging, custom content reflecting what is being thrown away. With TrashBot’s waste data, our Customer Success team can develop relevant educational content for the facility’s most popular waste items, educating users on recycling properly.
FAQ’s
When it comes to TrashBots, it’s natural to have many questions. Here are some frequently asked questions about CleanRobotic’s TrashBot:
What is TrashBot? TrashBot is an intelligent recycling bin that sorts waste at the disposal point.
Is TrashBot a robot? Yes, it is an automated machine combining robotics, AI, and machine learning to divert the disposed item into its corresponding bin.
How does TrashBot work? Once an item has been inserted into TrashBot, the waste chamber moves the item to the camera for identification and ultimately to the proper bin for disposal. Then, recycling items will be assigned to recycling, organics to their corresponding bin, and the rest of the waste or contaminated items will be assigned to the landfill bin.
How long does it take to sort an item? TrashBot takes around 4 to 6 seconds to sort. The cycle time is the period between disposals.
How many waste streams can TrashBot sort? The system can sort 2, 3, or 4 separate waste streams.
Can TrashBot be customized for my local recycling requirements? Every TrashBot is calibrated to the local waste rules and regulations before it is deployed.
How accurate is TrashBot’s AI? TrashBot sorts waste items with 96% accuracy.
How often does the Dashboard Update? The dashboard updates every 15 minutes.
Does the AI improve over time? Yes, TrashBots share data, learn from each other, and are always getting better.
What is TrashBot’s cycle time? The cycle time is the period between disposals, which is approximately 4 to 6 seconds. The new TrashBot Zero’s cycle time is only 6 seconds from when the end user throws away a piece of trash to when the gantry is back lined up with the deposit opening allowing another amount of waste.
How can I know when TrashBot is full? Users can view how full each TrashBot is on your personalized TrashBoard, which will help keep your custodian team on track with TrashBots in more remote areas of your facility that may not get tended to regularly. It is important to note that the sensing chamber needs to be maintained clean to prevent future jams or sorting issues.
Does TrashBot provide jam notifications? Yes, if the TrashBot ever gets jammed, the user will be notified in two ways. First, the TrashBot logo on the unit will change colors to signal a jam to the housekeeping and/or maintenance staff. Second, the user will also be notified on the Dashboard under the TrashBot fleet.
Organizations of all types are interested in smart waste management and new recycling technology. Integrating new sustainability initiatives within an organization often starts by issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP). But while RFPs are a standard process throughout the purchasing and acquisition worlds, there always remains an inherent challenge in writing one from scratch.
To make this process even more efficient, we have created templates for RFI and RFP that you can download for free.
Smart waste management also draws on a wide variety of technologies and services, which can make writing a simple RFP become much more complicated. The CleanRobotics team would like to share four great steps in creating a strong RFP with the optimal level of detail and technical requests of potential vendors. The better the RFP, the better the vendor response, and the more likely your organization will be able to make an educated selection.
Step One: Introduce Your Organization and the Challenge
Vendors will be interested in learning as much relevant information as they can about your organization and the use case for their recycling technology. Describing your organization, how it operates, and its sustainability policy will help vendors understand if they can provide a good solution for your organization.
Step Two: Clearly-Defined Goals
A strong RFP is defined by its clarity. Vendors will be more responsive and more apt to provide the information with clearly articulated RFP goals:
Waste Stream Improvement: Better control of the existing waste stream – in which you will need to explain what recycling technology is likely needed to accomplish this. A description of your current efforts will be helpful.
Meeting Established Sustainability Goals: A stronger ability to meet established corporate or organizational sustainability objectives – your vendor will be interested in knowing what your targeted, quantifiable objective(s) are and if there is a timeline for meeting these objectives.
Municipal Compliance: The need to meet local recycling or waste requirements – these should be clearly stated in the proposal. Alternatively, the RFP can direct vendors to the applicable municipal website for more detailed information.
Specific Problem/Solution: Solving a specific sustainability problem or concern – vendors will want to know what that issue is so they can propose the best solution
Step Three: Communicate Parameters
Strong RFPs provide answers to questions that vendors will ask. Make sure that your proposal includes:
Timeline: An expected implementation timeline – in return, vendors can provide a clear outline of when and how they would implement their technologies.
Technology Description: A clear description of the type of recycling technology your organization is seeking – smart bins, robotics, AI-based technology, etc.
Project Concept: An initial but general project concept – i.e., how many units are needed, where they could be placed, likely usage, required number of waste streams, etc.
Known Parameters/Limitations: Any limitations or challenges that could affect the project – staffing, infrastructure, etc.
Pricing Structure: Anticipated pricing template, including how you expect costs to be broken down – purchase, leasing, support, licensing, etc.
Providing detailed information serves two purposes: it helps vendors create comprehensive proposals, but it also reduces the chance that a vendor will provide an unfeasible or unworkable proposal. Instead, the vendor is more likely to realize that they aren’t a good fit and decline to submit a proposal.
In many instances, the final details of an RFP will not likely be decided until a vendor has been selected and a final contract is in the works. But general details help create a level playing field as vendors will be responding to the same parameters.
Step Four: All the Details
While much of the focus in writing a strong RFP is on the project itself, don’t forget to include the basic foundational details. This includes:
Process: Proposal deadline and review process, including intended review period and likely decision time, next steps, and how companies will be contacted during the process.
Submission Method: How you would like the proposal submitted (electronically via email, by mail, through a web-based submission, etc.) as well as if single or multiple copies must be submitted.
Media: Parameters for how supplemental/required media (videos or video links) can/cannot be submitted.
Proposal Format: What format the proposal should be in (PDF, slide deck, etc.)
Contact Information: Basic contact information for soliciting questions during the RFP process and for the final submission itself.
Questions: If there is a defined Q&A period, clearly state it and how questions are being submitted and answered.
Evaluation Criteria: Any helpful evaluation criteria or scoring process, at your discretion.
Finally, regardless of the RFP selected, it’s courteous to notify all vendors that a decision has been made at each round of the process.
