I have seen enough people getting confused
on which bin their garbage should go, yellow or red. The general rules are easy
to understand however many items are still in a vague area. An interesting “smart
bin” named Eugene was crowdfunded in French last year, and it’s supposed to make
the decision easier.
Eugene can scan the barcode of the package,
then do a search on whether the material is recyclable, and guide the user
place the rubbish in to the right bin. Sounds really something smart, hi-tech
and, errrh, sustainable, doesn’t it?
One may get enough satisfaction from
scanning the garbage one by one on this $450+ (299 euros) hi-tech bin and feel
good for contributing to the environment, but is that true?
In order to get things correctly sorted,
you have to buy processed foods, groceries and everything with a barcode,
generally these are plastic packages. What about your fresh fruits, vegies or
newspaper? Besides the expensive price you have paid for the bin itself, it
consumes power, internet and multiple servers runs 24x7 for identifying the
barcodes. Barcode cannot suggest what is a good recycling manner, the bin won’t
remind you to clear your food from the package or wash your milk bottle before
disposal.
And most importantly, a “smart bin” does
nothing smart to reduce the rubbish, it may even encourage you to scan and dump
rather than think carefully of reuse. At the end of the day, the bin itself
becomes a big chunk of electronic rubbish, which is known to be the most
unwanted landfill.
In summary: the smart bin is a useless modern
toy which contributes nothing to the sustainability issue. Spending the same
amount of money on else activity can do much better for the whole world. For
those really can’t classify rubbish, there are mobile apps essentially have the
same function to scan the barcode for you.
https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/13/smart-trash-can-helps-educate-reluctant-recyclers/#/
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