Progress Status

Delivered

Data Reliability

Self-declared

Website Enterprise / Infrastructure

 https://www.bine.world/

Sustainable Development

Attractiveness :

The challenges of Waste Management

Waste management represents a major economic and environmental issue worldwide. Trends in waste generation show an increase in the volumes of waste produced in most countries, especially in developing countries where waste generation is fueled by rapid urbanization, industrialization and economic development. As stated by the World Bank, in 2016, world cities generated about 2.0 billion tons of solid waste. This volume is expected to increase to 2.2 billion tones by 2025 representing an increase in per capita waste generation rates from 438 to 518 kg annually over 15 years span.

A priority is to move from reliance on landfilling to waste management systems that retain useful resources within the economy, minimizing the use of the resources and facilitating the introduction of circular economy. Waste segregation at source (separating the waste where it is generated) plays a key role in this process. Yet, it is a challenging task that involves both social and technical determinants.

Today more than ever, public institutions in cities and municipalities have a strong environmental focus and strive to implement sustainable waste management practices. The waste management responsibilities in public outdoor spaces are usually executed by private waste management companies (WMs), that face a
number of challenges in their waste management operations, such as:

1. Unfavourable mindset towards recycling: For years, people were throwing waste to one bin. Old habits are hard to break because this requires additional attention and effort. Without incentivising people to make this extra effort breaking old habits may not be possible.
2. Confusing recycling guidelines and lack of knowledge: The recycling rules tend to be complex and to vary between countries, even within the EU. While some citizens might be open to the idea of disposing of their waste in a more environmentally responsible way, they might not have the knowledge of how todo it. One of the most widespread problems, often leading to confusion when selecting the correct container, is the disposal of multi-material packaging.
3. Inefficiency of waste separation process: the current mainstream process is to sort municipal waste into particular recyclable fractions by WMs at waste processing facilities, as the waste stream collected by WMs is far from being homogeneous (the accuracy of manual waste sorting using traditional waste bins is only 30-40%). This means that even though separate waste bins for key waste fractions are deployed in numerous locations in cities, as much as 60-70% of the collected waste is sorted improperly. Due to this inefficiency WMs still have to process this “pre-sorted” waste stream as if they were dealing with a mixed waste stream, generating significant financial costs that could be avoided, if waste sorting at the source was much more efficient.
4. Unoptimized waste collection process: Waste collection is scheduled at fixed time slots. Therefore, some bins are collected half-empty, while others are already overloaded at the collection time.
5. High cost of waste removal: non-optimized waste management process generates costs on the WMs side (labour costs, fuel, component wear in vehicles and machinery, etc.), not to mention the excess carbon footprint. Consequently, it poses a significant financial pressure on municipalities who cooperate with the WMs, where waste management often accounts for around 20-50% of municipal budgets.
6. Newly arisen safety concerns: due to the recent Covid-19 pandemic, some of the habits in public outdoor spaces will undoubtedly have to change towards more hygienic, to ensure that transition of microorganisms between people is minimised.

 

Our Solution

Bin-e tackles the challenges stated above, as it fully automates source separation of solid waste and utilizes an AI-based object recognition system to provide a remarkably high accuracy (<90%) of this process. What makes the solution one of a kind, is the exceptional combination of proprietary technological features, automatic waste recognition and sorting, compression mechanisms, with IoT platform, web and mobile app, as well as wide customization possibilities, making Bin-e adjustable to any national/ local waste sorting requirements and any given indoor space in the world.

The designed system allows to process waste in 3 basics steps:
STEP 1: An object is placed in the recognition chamber (the bin opening) where it is put through the AI-
enhanced recognition process. Next, the object is assigned to one of four categories (by default: paper, glass, metal and plastic but the fractions can be adjusted to the recycling regulations in the given location).
STEP 2: After the object is recognized, it is transported into the respective fraction.
STEP 3: Once the containers are filled in 75%-85%, plastic and paper fractions are automatically compressed. This step reduces the frequency of bin emptying up to eightfold. Once sensors detect that any compartment is full,notifications are sent to the users and maintenance services via Bin-e app.

The disruptive potential of the innovation relies on the combination of six complementary elements:

1. Proprietary AI-based automatic recognition system allowing to identify literally any type of object (according to the need)
2. Proprietary automatic sorting mechanism, which assigns the waste object to a correct designated chamber
3. Proprietary automatic non-contact lid opening technology, so that Bin-e can be operated completely contactless to in-crease safety of work and public places
4. Automatic compression mechanism for two middle fractions, usually paper and plastic chambers,
5. Cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) platform used for waste disposal and data management.
6. Wide customisation possibilities, not only in the casing colours, but also in the setup of waste fractions that the client wishes to segregate, as well as customisation of messages and app content displayed on the screen to the needs of users and clients (user engagement and education, CSR goals, etc.)

As part of the safety package, the device can be equipped with additional features that increase the safety of its use and adapt it to the conditions of the current pandemic:

1. Casing covered with silver ions
2. Fraction for paramedical waste
3. Waste decontamination with UVC lamps

 

Well Being :

Improving the well being of stakeholders: 

1. Today: Owners and/or FM companies administrating large office spaces
2. Short-term: Owners and/or FM companies administrating other indoor commercial premises (e.g. shopping
3. centers, hotels, exhibition centers)
4. Mid-term: Public/ private entities (including FM companies)

Solving the needs of stakeholders: 

1. smart innovative solution that add value to FM activities and build FM provider’s reputation through meeting their clients’ expectations in three dimensions: Economic, Environmental, Social
2. means to optimize, and streamline FM business (i.e. as regards waste management)
3. enhanced ability to multi- task employees for improved efficiency of FM workforce
4. reduction of labour costs associated with waste management
5. reduction of waste disposal costs
6. safety (especially important in public spaces in times of the coronavirus pandemic)
7. reliability and ease of maintenance
8. increased efficiency of FM services, especially in workload peaks
9. improved profitability of FM services

Value proposition

1. Using Bin-e allows FM companies to lower costs of waste disposal, given that:

• the disposal of sorted waste is significantly cheaper than unsorted (mixed) waste
• the waste will have up to 50% less volume thanks to compression, which means less frequent bin emptying and waste collection
• by using the IoT platform and apps FMs will be able to optimize waste management processes according to real-time waste fill level monitoring
• time saved on bin emptying by cleaning service can be used for other FM activities; more work can be done within the same time and cost

2. FM companies gain flexibility, as Bin-e can be customized to the needs of particular customer and specific waste management requirements on the target market.

3. By improving the waste segregation accuracy to <90%, FMs will get the opportunity to organize the disposal of secondary raw materials (SRM) directly by specialized companies, turning waste disposal cost into a potential source of additional income.

4. Touch-free, automatic opening lid guarantees hygiene and safety of waste disposal

Preservation / Environmental Improvement :

The European Commission has implemented the Waste Framework Directive (the EU Directive 2008/98/EC), which requires from member countries to implement the waste management strategies. This obligation is a means of reaching the target recycling rate by 2020 and further targets by 2025, 2030 and 2035. Bin-e’s self-segregating recycling system will support the compliance with these regulations. Thanks to our solution, the increase of recycling rates is facilitated, with a higher rate of raw material recovery, and a positive impact on decrease in
landfilling. The problem is getting even more critical with recent changes in waste policies in Asian countries.

Responsible use of resources :

Bin-e simplifies the recycling process. The waste processed by Bin-e sorted with a precision of 90%. This is high-quality raw material that can be immediately recycled. By increasing the amount of waste that gets recycled, less waste is disposed on landfills. Bin-e also lowers CO2 emissions for waste transport thanks to the reduced volume of garbage and optimized collection routes; 

Testimony / Feedback

Todays’s waste management is mostly based on some imposed plans and previous experiences. This brings us to the situation when the bins are either filled with waste or are emptied by maintenance people when they are half full. Manual fill level control consumes a lot of time during a day. In an era of smart buildings and common optimisation of such processes as water and electricity consumption, it is high time to look also inside our bins.

We have created the most advanced technology in this field - Bin-e. It is an AI-based smart waste bin designed for effective waste management. The device automatically recognizes and segregates the waste, with an accuracy of over 90%. Achieving such a high accuracy of waste segregation ‘at the source’ is the cheapest and most efficient way in terms of recycling. Additionally, compression of plastic and paper decreases the frequency of emptying the containers.

Together with the device comes also an application for mobile devices and desktops. It informs the staff about the fill level and automatically sends notifications when any of the bins inside is full. This enables more efficient time management of the maintenance service. Your staff allocates only as much time as it is needed to handle the waste. All these functions work for a better optimization of waste management and allow to generate additional savings coming from more effective work of your staff and lower costs of waste disposal.

Governance

Bine sp. z o. o.

Holder Type : Private Company

Sustainable Solutions

Bin-e

Description :

Bin-e is an AI-based smart waste bin, designed for office spaces and smart buildings, enabling them to achieve efficiency in waste management and reach green strategy goals. It combines most advanced technology to simplify recycling and facilitate the transition to a circular economy.

It sorts and compresses the waste automatically, controls the fill level and processes data for convenient waste management. The smart waste bin recognizes the type of waste thanks to an AI-based recognition system and sorts it to the relevant chamber. Plastics and papers are compressed to decrease the volume. The collection service gets notified automatically when one of the bins inside is full.  Each device can be easily managed via an app that shows the fill level of each bin in real-time. An integrated IoT-Platform provides valuable insights into waste management operations that can be used to optimize collection routes, and save costs, time and labour of waste disposal. 

Bin-e is an excellent solution for easy and resource-efficient recycling in smart buildings. It enables the recovery of high-quality raw material and the reduction of CO2 emissions of waste transport.

• Circular economy
• Waste management

Company (es) Website :

Company (es) Website :

Photo credit

Bine sp. z o. o.