Ciphra recycling

University of British Columbia

Garbage disposal is becoming more costly for municipalities as the capacity of operating landfills decreases. In 2012, $28.5 million worth of recyclable materials were dumped into Vancouver's landfills. Similarly, major cities have introduced policies, such as increasing tipping fees and fines, in an effort to increase diversion rates - diversion rate is the percentage of solid waste diverted from the general waste stream through recycling.

Our company, Ciphra, develops innovative products to meet current recycling needs. We have developed SortIT, an electronic device which aims at educating and guiding users on how to dispose their garbage while they are standing in front of garbage receptacles such as compost, paper, plastic, and normal waste.

SortIT features a robust image processing system, which allows users to quickly scan any piece of garbage to inquire about their correct bin destinations. Upon scanning, the system will identify and categorize the waste into predetermined garbage types specified by the facility managers. A display port will be used to show directions as to how the garbage should be disposed of. We envision SortIT to be fastened on top of garbage receptacles.