A new revolutionary technology is here to redefine your relationship with your garbage. The ground-breaking approach is called the ‘Smart Trash’. Developed by Valerie Thomas, Anderson Interface Associate Professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, the trashcan provides sustainable and productive methods for discarded items that would else go into the landfills.
How Smart Trash works:
Two essential elements are involved in making Smart Trash function.
Smart Trash comes equipped with a scanner, which is basically a Universal Product Code (UPC) or radio frequency identification (RFID) tag identifier. The scanner instantaneously records the things being disposed, providing consumers with a facility of track their trash and determine what pieces are potentially valuable. The system includes another component that is a retrofitted recycling truck or recycling center, which is capable of sorting trash and recyclables. The sorted items that are of some importance could then be sent to some auction site and whatever money is earned could make some profit to the consumers any money gathered from this waste could be applied to a consumer’s monthly sanitation bill or sent as a check.
As far as the items with unsafe components are concerned, they could be placed aside for appropriate management. The non-recyclable waste in the trashcan can be composted to provide energy. The energy generated through the composting process could be power everything from lights to appliances. The Smart Trash and the recycling service are connected to each other through a Wi-Fi connection.
Various agencies showing interest:
The Smart Trash is grabbing attention of major corporations and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The concept has already made a lot of manufacturers, retailers, recyclers and researchers work towards making the idea a reality. Project PURE (Promoting Understanding of RFID and the Environment) — featuring representatives of companies such as Wal-Mart and Hewlett-Packard, as well as recyclers and developers of product codes — is working to refine this concept and push it toward mainstream reality. The EPA is so impressed with the trashcan that it has agreed to fund Project PURE.
Via: Physorg