In honor of Earth Day, the new models enable facilities to further optimize their sorting and recycling programs.
CleanRobotics Inc. announced today that it will begin offering two additional models of TrashBot, their automated waste sorting solution. TrashBot Zero is the world’s first automated waste sorting solution capable of managing 3-4 separate streams of waste (recyclable, compostable, landfill, etc.), while the TrashBot Slim is a smaller, more economical version of the original TRASHBOT, designed for forward-thinking office spaces and small businesses. These new models will help a wider range of customers maximize their recycling potential.
“The original TrashBot separates waste into two streams – recyclable from landfill. More recently we’ve seen a global shift towards three to four streams of waste, which motivated us to create TrashBot Zero,” said Tanner Cook, CleanRobotics co-founder and VP of Engineering.
“The fundamental issue is that humans get confused about where to put their waste, and this creates massive problems for recyclers,” said Charles Yhap, CleanRobotics co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. “TrashBots Slim and Zero allows our technology to be more accessible and affordable to a broader range of public facilities and work-places around the world, increasing our ability to make a difference in terms of carbon emissions and resource conservation.”
TrashBot Zero: Sorts up to Four Streams of Waste
TrashBot Zero is the world’s first automated waste sorting solution capable of identifying up to four separate categories, or streams, of waste. The robot is calibrated based on local recycling rules to maximize diversion from landfills with a sorting accuracy of over 95%, ensuring compliance with local waste rules and mitigating risks of fines. TrashBot Zero includes the CleanRobotics analytics platform, enabling the unit to perform waste audits, calculate diversion rates, determine potential cost savings, and provide granular data on the items collected – all in real-time. TrashBot Zero’s design makes it ideal for stadiums, cafeterias, and other high traffic facilities where visitors dispose of compostable food waste alongside common trash and recycling, increasing recovery of recyclable materials and decreasing contamination at an unprecedented rate. The included 55-inch display can help educate users with recycling tips configured based upon facility-specific challenges learned through the analytics platform.
TrashBot Slim: Powerful Features in Half the Footprint
Measuring 50% smaller than the original TrashBot, TrashBot Slim offers similar capabilities at a lower price point. The unit features a stainless-steel body, a 55” display, and the CleanRobotics analytics platform. TrashBot Slim’s size, price, and sorting accuracy of 95% for 2 streams makes it perfect for a variety of locations including office spaces and small businesses.
Smart Bins Save Time
Both TrashBot Zero and TrashBot Slim include capacity monitoring indicators to help custodians optimize their workflow and spend less time checking bins. With visual notifications and direct communication, staff will always know when the bin needs to be emptied, making the need for manual checks obsolete.
Pricing & Availability
TRASHBOT Zero and TRASHBOT Slim will be available for order on April 22 with a one-year standard warranty. Pricing is dependent on the number of units ordered. For more information, visit https://cleanrobotics.com/contact-sales/
About CleanRobotics
CleanRobotics is focused on combining hardware, software, and the Internet of Things to bring new life to recycling programs and the circular economy. Founded in 2015, the CleanRobotics team is driven by the core belief that sorting waste before it reaches recycling facilities is the most effective way to retrieve and maintain the value of recyclable commodities. Their flagship product, TrashBot, has been proven to reduce contamination at the point of disposal with a sorting accuracy of 95%. For more information about CleanRobotics, please visit www.cleanrobotics.com.
(1) Specifications may vary depending on the model. (2) Accuracy statistics are based on real world data collected. Actual accuracy may vary depending on the facility as well as environmental factors, including calibration and types of waste. (3) Real time analytics require placement of the unit in a location with cellular network connectivity.
One month ago, US-based robotics company CleanRobotics was named a semifinalist in the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE competition for its flagship product TrashBot. TrashBot is a smart trash can that uses AI to sort and separate trash from recyclables. When items are entered one at a time, a camera and sensors classify each item and sort them into the correct internal bin. The process takes three to five seconds per item. The company says its technology separates recyclable vs. landfill items with 90% accuracy, against 30% accuracy that is typical of conventional methods.
No one likes dealing with trash. That’s a given, right? Yet whatever passes for tech in waste management hasn’t changed in decades. Looks like an outfit called CleanRobotics is ready to help us out, though, with their new TrashBot.
TrashBot looks like a commercial waste station on the outside–the kind of recycling and trash setup you’d see in some restaurants. Beneath its surface, however, CleanRobotics has created a system utilizing artificial intelligence, cameras and mechanical robotics to sort whatever you throw away into actual garbage and recyclables.
Sure, someone with mechanical ability could probably put this together in their garage, but they couldn’t claim, as CleanRobotics does, a 90% sorting accuracy rate–supposedly much more accurate than a human sorter.
It is, then, eminently useful, especially perhaps for small business owners who deal with a wide variety of waste matter but sometimes limited time to work out what to dispose of and what to recycle.
At an office in San Francisco, if you drop a coffee cup in a robotic waste bin, the machine will automatically sort the cup for recycling. The office is one of the first to use the technology, called TrashBot, from a startup called CleanRobotics that is trying to solve a fundamental challenge in recycling: Even when someone is diligently trying to reduce waste, there’s a good chance they’re recycling wrong.
“The idea was really born out of frustration,” says Charles Yhap, cofounder and CEO of CleanRobotics, which is a semifinalist in the current IBM Watson AI XPRIZE. He points to the example of a store like Whole Foods, where anyone who eats at the salad bar then has to figure out which bin to use for their fork and box and cup. “I’ll eat my food and I go to throw something away and I’m confronted with an array of waste bins, and it’s just so confusing—everywhere you go, the rules are slightly different, and I’m still not sure that I’m doing it correctly.”
He thought that technology could help. “We started looking at the diminishing costs of sensors and robotic components and the increasing accessibility of algorithms and AI systems and we thought, maybe we can build something that does this better than people,” he says. It helped that current bins are already expensive—a single set in an airport might cost $1,200. “These are just shiny metal tubes that don’t do anything for you. So we thought we could build a robot that is price competitive and adds a ton more value.”
You can use the bin essentially like any trash bin, although you have to throw in one piece of trash at a time for the system to recognize it. When a bottle or container goes in the bin, the lid automatically closes, and a camera and sensors send data about the item to software that classifies it and sorts it into the correct internal bin. After three to five seconds, it’s ready for the next item.
CleanRobotics is among ten companies still in the running for the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE, an international competition for tech companies making a humanitarian difference.
The quest for the $3 million first prize began in the summer of 2016 with more than 100 teams. The competition’s winner will be announced by early April.
CleanRobotics CEO, Charles Yhap admits he’s pleasantly surprised CleanRobotics has made it so far in the competition, but thinks a few factors have helped.
“The problem we’re trying to solve is a pressing problem,” Yhap said. “With the climate crisis coming to a head, any technology that is intelligently trying to attack carbon emissions and climate change is really going to capture the imagination.” Yhap said if CleanRobotics wins, the prize money would go to expanding the company.
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