Vancouver high school students create intelligent garbage cans to help sort waste [Video]

A pair of Vancouver high school students hope their innovation using odour sensors and artificial intelligence will help their peers divert more waste from the landfill.

Amy Bach and Sunny Huynh created Bin Genius because of what they saw around them at their schools.

“A lot of students, when they have lunch, they just throw all of their plates and then their food [waste] into the garbage bin, which will be sent to landfills,” said Bach, a Grade 12 student at Gladstone Secondary School.

“So we want to … educate students and, you know, help them improve their waste sorting habits.”

Bin Genius pairs sensors, cameras and a related app with waste bins to alert users through light and sound, or via an alert on their phones, if, for example, an orange peel isn’t placed in the compost, or a drink container is thrown into the garbage rather than the recycling bin.

Bach and Huynh used 5,000 images …