TrashBot Joins the Pittsburgh Airport to Educate Travelers on Recycling

Innovation continues to evolve in the waste industry and with AI booming everywhere you look, that innovation is happening faster and faster. Thankfully for our industry, AI is helping in one area that is holding recycling back, which is the “is this recyclable?” question that we ask ourselves regularly.

With AI, most of the guessing work is done for us. AI, in turn, prevents a large amount of contamination which is, arguably, the biggest issue with recycling.

Now, folks traveling through the Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) won’t have to worry about erroneous recycling with the help of AI and TrashBot.

TrashBot is a smart bin powered by AI that can sort waste right from the point of disposal and it actively gathers data regarding the waste and then is able to educate users. Recently, six TrashBots were installed in a Los Angeles hospital where the machines interacted with more than 240,000 visitors in three months, reducing recycling contamination by 95% and achieving 300% more accurate sorting compared to conventional trash receptacles.

For PIT, TrashBot will help the facility sort passenger waste and recyclables with 96% accuracy. For airports, TrashBot will be interacting with a ton of domestic and international travelers which will help educate anyone who uses the machines. These interactions will, hopefully, influence and educate the travelers and contribute to better recycling around the world.

"TrashBot's implementation at PIT Airport, and the work we do together, embodies how AI and robotics can transform waste management and sustainability practices within airports. We're eager to see how TrashBot and associated waste data can support and advance PIT's commitment to solving operational challenges through innovation," said CleanRobotics CEO Charles Yhap.

The TrashBOt project is being facilitated by PIT’s xBridge Innovation Center which launched back in 2020 and severs as a proving ground for technologies and startups. xBridge targets technologies for the future, such as TrashBot, and support the tech innovation economy at PIT.

Cole Wolfson, xBridge Director, commented: "Bringing AI and robotics into a sector like waste management, which affects the entire aviation industry, and giving us the ability to dramatically upgrade our recycling efforts is a game-changer. We're really proud of this partnership with CleanRobotics."

TrashBot bins are continuing to pop up all over the United States, bringing its AI-powered recycling to the public and educating people with each piece of trash. Since TrashBot is connected to the cloud, it will only get smarter over time. And as TrashBot learns more about recycling, so will we.