In America, only about 30% of recyclable waste actually gets recycled even when recycling bins are readily available. Many recyclable items end up in a landfill and many non-recyclable items end up contaminating recycling.
The solution:
RecycleBot is an automated waste sorter that recycles for you. A user places a piece of trash in the bin and a camera inside of the bin takes a picture of the item. The bin has two parts -- the upper part where the person will place their trash and the lower part which is divided into paper, plastic, metal, and landfill bins. The picture will be sent to an image API that will determine what type of waste the item is. This information is sent back to the Arduino which uses it to open the correct side (paper, plastic, metal, or landfill) of the lower part of the bin.
Checkout the demo: