Sbin

Inspiration

I recalled going into Japan one summer. I recalled that one of the most eye-opening observation I made there was the dedication and hard work of the people in keeping Japan environmentally-friendly. From train stations and parks to apartments and schools, I saw many separate public bins designated for specific kinds of waste, such as glass, metal, and paper products. I learned that each type of waste would be sent to the proper recycling company to be processed and recycled. This process greatly reduces the amount of waste sent to the landfills. I observed that whenever my aunt in Japan threw out household trash, she sorted out her trash into the respective bins so that the trash would be recycled appropriately. However, in America, many people throw different kinds of potentially recyclable trash into the same waste bin, which gets sent straight to landfills. When I realized the stark difference of the two cultures, I wondered if there would be a way for people to reduce the amount of waste in America as well as Japan. Through this realization, I eventually came up with the idea of the Sbin.

What it does:

Basically, the SBin works by being able to specifically sort out whatever trash you place. Depending on the material of the SBin, whether it is plastic, aluminum, or paper, the SBin automatically categorizes the trash based on material and places them in separate categories automatically after it is disposed.

How I built it:

I mainly used Java to establish the middle end aspect of the Sbin.

Challenges I ran into

Recognizing the size and composition of the trash was a very tricky ordeal. I had to figure out a way to make sure that the generally heavy material that is placed as trash did not confound with the many light objects that were placed at the same time. Even though it was possible to make the logic to code it, it is very difficult to apply in practice, due to the many possible ways of confounding these checks.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I am proud of the fact that I worked on creating the software aspect of the Sbin.

What I learned

I learned that it is necessary to learn much more about handling hardware in order to make sure that the software gets to properly handle the inputs needed for the Sbin to function.

What's next for Sbin

Hopefully, I would be able to get the needed hardware experience and capital to be able to fully implement the SBin in its production stages.

Built With

• java