Machines As The Answer To Garbage Problems
Trash is a messy subject for every country around the world, and yet another problem with it is who gets to clean it up and put it away? For that, the best answer may be machines.
How Much Trash to Collect
Based on US statistics, the average American resident creates about 4 pounds of waste each day and upwards of possibly 56 tons of trash in a year. College students, in particular, produce about 640 pounds of waste each year in the form of around 500 disposable cups and 320 pounds of paper. In the average person's lifespan, they can leave behind about 90 thousand for future generations. The entire US makes enough trash to fill 63 thousand garbage trucks daily.
Amongst the objects in our garbage bins, about a third of the waste created every year in the US is only product packaging, such as plastics and boxes, and packaging represents about 65% of all household trash. The waste generated each year around the world is enough to fill the New Orleans Super Dome 1,500 times over, according to waste management company Rubicon Global. There are about 18 billion disposable diapers, 1.6 billion pens, 2 billion razor blades, and 270 million tires thrown out each year, as well as about 43 thousand tons of food. With all this garbage in the world, are human beings really enough to collect it?
ROAR Project
Many experts believe that the dawn of automation will help speed up many processes and make sure they’re safer for human workers. With that, garbage collection may be one job that researchers are trying to find robotic replacements for. In an experiment done by the Volvo Group, in collaboration with Mälardalen University, Penn State, the Swedish waste management company Renova, and Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology, they dubbed their work the ‘Robot-based Autonomous Refuse handling’ (or ROAR) project. Per-Lage Götvall, project manager, stated that the creation of the machine was an experiment to “stimulate the imagination” with possibilities of new concepts that could change transport solutions as automation becomes more mainstream.
The ROAR project prototype is more or less a self-driving truck that comes with its own small-wheeled robot as well as a drone. The technology uses a mix of GPS, lidar, in which distance is measured with laser lights, motion sensors with odometry, and cameras in order for the drone to check the targeted trash can. Once it’s been cleared for collection, the robot is then dispatched to fetch the can, dump the waste in the truck, and then return the can to the curb, as explained by City Lab, a website that tells the stories of the world's cities. Inside, the human driver uses screens inside the cab to monitor the goings-on outside, and can take manual control over the processes should they need to. There’s also an emergency stop button that can be utilized in case of children or dogs that might be placed in harm’s way.
Switch to Automation
For many reasons, garbage collection is one of the jobs most susceptible to automation. For starters, its one of the most hazardous jobs, and is ranked third riskiest in the world in a study by the Florida Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste Management, Miami, and University of Miami. An average of 90 deaths happen each year for every 100 thousand workers, which is 100 times higher than should be acceptable for any job. Risks and dangers, of course, include the trash itself. Garbage collectors are at risk of coming into contact with broken glass, which could cause cuts and open wounds, as well as medical equipment like syringes and scalpels that could be infected with deadly diseases. They are also exposed to several harmful chemicals, the risk of overloaded objects falling on them, inhalation of smoke, hazardous fumes, and dust, and foul odors, as stated by Meee-Services.com. Aside from this, garbage collectors are not usually tasked with coming up with solutions to the garbage problems, and are simply tasked with collecting it, nor do they personally assist others in their work or negotiate answers. This makes the job highly dispensable, though the waste managers who oversee complex garbage operation systems will not be replaced anytime soon by a robot.
Future Prospects
Currently, many parts of the American garbage collection system are already automated, especially in larger cities. The truck driver is the only human element, and the truck has strong pincers controlled by the driver. The pincers can grab, lift, and upturn trash bins into the truck before returning them. Of course, for actually automated robots to become successful, the collection system would need to travel to predetermined garbage disposal areas, as well as have a system that has a sufficient power supply that won’t run out of fuel as the collection process is going on. There are plenty of reasons for garbage collection companies to make the switch to automated robot collectors, but they would need to deal with the price and make sure the whole operation is safe, especially for civilians. Perhaps, sooner than later, we may have little garbage robots going about the neighborhood.
