MBR_ISSUE 51_MAY_low res-compressed (1)

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Malta Business Review
Go on, be honest. How many
times have you stood frozen in
the kitchen, holding a container
from last night’s Pad Thai in one
hand and an old blueberry yoghurt pot in
the other? Which one goes where? Can
you recycle the foil lid? Do you think it’s
socially acceptable to chuck the yoghurt
pot in with the regular trash, and do you
have to be at work in three minutes so
you’re losing the will to care?
Recycling is crucial. Earlier this month a
record-breaking deep sea dive found a
plastic bag in the bottom of the Mariana
Trench. Animals are being found dead
stuffed with plastic straws and coffee
cups. At the rate we’re generating singleuse
plastics, we’re damaging the natural
environment far too quickly for it to
sustainably survive. Unless we change.
This is why it’s essential we engage in
effective recycling waste management.
The truth is, we generate too much waste
as a population for traditional waste
management to be effective anymore:
that's around 1.3 billion tonnes of waste
each day. Is there a way to recycle more
sustainably? Using AI to effectively manage
waste management could be the solution.
The World Bank predicts that by 2025, we
will generate 2.2 billion tonnes of waste a
day. AI has to play a role in change as it’s
the only way we can sift through such giant
amounts of rubbish on such a large scale.
Climate crisis is already here.
Mark Hall, CEO of Business Waste points
out that if everyone did their bit in the
first place, there’d be no need to recycle.
“If manufacturers didn’t create products
that didn’t need to be recycled, then we
wouldn’t need recycling at all.”
To be honest if everyone did their bit, if
we didn’t have manufactures creating
products that can’t be recycled then we
wouldn’t need to recycle. BusinessWaste.
co.uk is the waste company that hates
waste, we want to prevent it and divert
it all away from landfill. It should work
like the following: prevention, re-use,
recycling, recovery, and disposal.”
AI, or artificial intelligence, is a system
that has the ability to learn and develop
itself from experience, rather than being
programmed by a human to do something.
And in the world of recycling, it’s already
being used to good effect.
ZenRobotics are hoping they have the
answer. They’re a world leader in waste
separation, and in 2011, the Finnish
company began to use AI to manage waste
more efficiently. Their solution? A robotic
waste sorter. They programmed the robot
to identify elements that could be recycled
The Robots
Are Coming
(to recycle)...
By 2025, we will generate 2.2 billion tonnes of
waste a day. AI has a role to play in helping us
sift through such giant amounts of rubbish.
from the factory belt, and these were
then removed and sorted. Data supplied
from sensors, 3D laser cameras and
spectroscopic cameras to identify what can
and can’t be recycled. The robots are used
across 10 different countries.
Robots are also being physically used in
waste disposal centres. They are able to work
non-stop and use AI to sift through mounds
of rubbish. The robots use computer vision
systems, which are adept at recognising if
something is recyclable or not.
And, if you’re one of those people who
constantly finds themselves questioning
whether to recycle a dog food can or not,
then breathe easy.
Hall says: “AI is already here. It’s in smart
bins that use sensors and cameras to split
the waste into compartments so the only
waste that is suitable goes to landfill and
everything else is sorted into the right
recycling box. It’s also in use at recycling
plants with machines that sort recycling
waste can learn from touch and weight for
Continued on page 49
AI is already here. It’s
in smart bins that use
sensors and cameras
to split the waste into
compartments so
the only waste that is
suitable goes to landfill
and everything else is
sorted into the right
recycling box.
www.maltabusinessreview.net
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