McDonald’s restaurants and Nordstrom department stores have been putting Trash-monitoring cameras for cleaning up their waste stream. These cameras come from a San Francisco based company Compology that was started in 2013
The company’s main initiative involves installing cameras and artificial intelligence to monitor what’s thrown into dumpsters and trash containers outside of restaurants and major department stores. Jason Gates is the man behind these impressive cameras.
This will help in getting more information on their waste streams. Data extracted can help each company recycle more efficiently and save money.
These specialized cameras take pictures several times a day and when the cans are being dumped. After that, an AI software inspects the images to spot any non-recyclables thrown in trash containers.
Since 2013, the company has processed over 80 million photos from 162,000 trash-monitoring cameras. This way the system has helped in cutting the volume of non-recyclables thrown in with trash by up to 80%.
Gates, CEO of Compology, said, “We’ve found that most businesses and people have the right intentions about recycling, but oftentimes they just don’t know what the proper way to recycle is,”
The company’s customers are happy with the cameras
Brent Bohn, who owns dozens of McDonald’s restaurants in Las Vegas and Phoenix, said, “The cameras have really streamlined that for us and provided accountability for us, but also for our suppliers and the haulers that we work with,”
Customers have to pay between $10 and $20 per dumpster per month. However, Gates hopes it saves thousands of dollars annually on waste-hauling costs.
He said, “You’ve been able to measure how much electricity, water, gas you’ve used for decades,”
“What we’re doing is being able to meter how much waste you produce.”
