Intelligent Recycling System for Identification and Sorting of Municipal Recyclables
Overview
An intelligent recycling bin with three core features, namely smart recognition, sorting, and capacity adjustment. It can replace manual sorting, improving processing efficiency and user experience. Its compact design allows for wide deployment in various corners of the city, helping to significantly increase recycling rates and achieve the goal of waste reduction for all.
Research completion
2023
Commercialisation opportunities
Patent licensing, Technical consultation
Problem addressed
This intelligent recycling bin can solve the pain points of low recycling rates, material contamination, inability to prevent misuse, and large space occupation in existing recycling bins.
Innovation
- It integrates embedded artificial intelligence computing units and multispectral sensors to achieve real-time identification of four types of materials: metal, plastic, glass, and paper at the source. It can also distinguish contaminated materials, thereby guiding fine sorting and improving the quality and value of recycled items.
- It has a wide feed opening with a safety gate that allows users to dispose of multiple recyclable items at once. Equipped with a complete set of patented structures, it can achieve orderly circulation and sorting of materials inside the bin, with a sorting speed of up to 1 item/s.
- It can, under the drive of the patent volume adjustment mechanism, dynamically allocate the volume of various materials in the space based on the sensing data of the occupied volume in each material compartment, thereby maximizing the overall volume utilization of the bin.
Key impact
- To achieve fine sorting and recycling of recyclable materials at the source without human intervention and to prevent misuse.
- The compact size makes it more suitable for large-scale deployment, thereby helping society improve recycling rates.
- IoT systems can be integrated to collect recycling data, which can be used for decision-making by relevant departments or for conducting ESG assessments.
Application
- Replace the existing non-intelligent tricolor recycling bins
- Upgrade the existing recycling bin to enhance its material identification and sorting capabilities
Patent
- Chinese invention and utility model patents
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)
Founded in 1963, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a forward-looking comprehensive research university with a global vision and a mission to combine tradition with modernity, and to bring together China and the West. CUHK teachers and students hail from all around the world. Four Nobel laureates are associated with the university, and it is the only tertiary institution in Hong Kong with recipients of the Nobel Prize, Turing Award, Fields Medal and Veblen Prize sitting as faculty in residence. CUHK graduates are connected worldwide through an extensive alumni network. CUHK undertakes a wide range of research programmes in many subject areas, and strives to provide scope for all academic staff to undertake consultancy and collaborative projects with industry.
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