When people throw away paper cups, the waste involved is more than just the cups themselves. It also includes the water used to manufacture it, the tree that it was made out of, the oil used to ship it to its destination, and much, much more. However, if organizations track the amount of garbage they produce, this can provide decision-makers with data that can help them enact policies which have a positive effect on the environment.
The University of Hawaii System currently conducts trash audits in order to produce this kind of data. About once every five years, dozens of students at each campus dig through garbage, sort it into categories, weigh it, record the results with pen and paper, enter them into a computer and then they can finally view graphs and reports. While useful, this way of doing things is infrequent and inefficient.
PaperLess is a waste auditing system that makes things much easier. While sorting through trash, student volunteers can use speech recognition software to record their results, which are then sent to a database that produces the reports they need. This method speeds up the auditing process by making data entry an afterthought. Unfortunately, it still uses a very small sample size, and can only be done when enough people are available to carry out the work.
For these reasons, we decided to add. The easy button. Instead of only conducting audits, the data can be collected at the point of disposal. The button is placed on or near a trash can. If we need data on how many straws get thrown away for example, it can be accompanied by a sign that says “push me when you throw away a straw”. Every time someone pushes it, it sends data to the database and updates reports in real time. The ease of this method allows for continuous data collection, which leads to better decision-making.
Finally, we have even more features in the works, including an I.O.T. scale that automatically sends the weight of trash bags to the cloud, and software that tracks waste by gathering point-of-sale data. More importantly though, our solutions are not just useful for UH campuses. They can be deployed by any organization, including city and state governments. So in addition to reducing campus waste, they can reduce waste for entire cities, and perhaps even the entire world.
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