A large issue seen regarding waste organization is figuring out what can be recycled. Rules regarding recycling can vary from region to region, and general negligence or unawareness regarding these rules often causes contamination that causes the entire bin ending up in the landfill. Our goal is to target this very issue in a location where attempts at educating people about waste separation are currently made and have the potential to be greatly improved: schools. Our project is Dr. Green, a smart recycling device that notifies its user if the object being thrown out can truly be recyclable. Using ML algorithms, Dr. Green identifies whether the item is in fact recyclable, and provides both audible and visual alerts to the user if this is not the case. Through this set up, not only can people learn more about recycling rules, but the community overall can avoid recycling contamination, thus reducing the amount of unnecessary waste entering landfills.
Carnegie Mellon ECE Capstone, Spring 2023: Ting Hsu, Vasudha Srinivasan, Aichen Yao