Artificial Intelligence is progressively creeping into any day-to-day task, to the point of helping us to recycle packaging or telling us if it is better to take it to a clean point.
“A pilot project, promoted by València Innovation Capital, allows users to photograph with their cell phones the waste they have doubts about, recognize it and obtain information to deposit it in the correct container”. This is how the Valencia City Council describes this new function available in the AppValència mobile application.
We have decided to go a step beyond the official release and test it in real situations: from a sunscreen, to a paper bag, headphones or keys.
The first step is to download it, from the App Store for iPhone or Play Store for Android phones. Then, you will have to access the recycling coach, a Verde icon in the center of the screen. There, the system will ask for the relevant permissions to access our phone’s camera.
Once approved, we will be able to photograph any object and obtain the necessary information to recycle it.
Artificial Intelligence that recycles
This application uses the technology of the company Nästa Eco, a Valencian project created by ZubiLabs, a fund with a sustainable approach led by Iker Marcaide, founder of Flywire.
In our tests, the results are more than satisfactory, to the point of detecting objects such as a headphone case or identifying a Bluetooth speaker. The following are examples:
