Saint Louis University researchers tracking recycling, waste

A Saint Louis University (SLU) researcher has plans to place sensors in waste and recycling bins around the city of St. Louis, KMOX News Radio reports.

“Garbage is an area that has a huge environmental impact and there’s a lot that we can do on the management side,” Orhun Aydin, assistance professor in earth and atmospheric science at SLU’s School for Science and Engineering, tells KMOX.

The challenge of solid waste management and recycling, Aydin says, is often only a small fraction of the recyclables collected actually are recycled. Mismanaged solid waste is routed to landfills and incinerators.

His team will use a grant of about $150,000 from the National Science Foundation to fund the sensors, according to the report.

“These are small self-powered sensors, geospatial sensors in that they collect locational information,” Aydin says. “These will be embedded in waste and recycling bins so that we can gather near live information about what is being thrown away.”

The sensors will gather data to help waste management companies better allocate resources for collecting recycling the most effective way.

The sensors can also detect the composition of what’s being thrown away—for instance, they can sense methane, which indicates decaying food. And, for recyclables, optical sensors can detect the shape and composition of the materials in the bin, Aydin says.

The research team will partner with EarthDay 365, a nonprofit focused on environmental sustainability in the St. Louis region, to design educational programming based on its findings.