Meet the TrashBot: CleanRobotics is using machine learning to keep recycling from going to waste

At a mall in Sydney, Australia, "the world's first smart trash can" is fastidiously photographing, weighing, and sorting garbage. The industrious TrashBot is a long way from home. Trashbot was born in Pittsburgh at the AlphaLab Gear startup accelerator. There, the CleanRobotics team has been developing a machine that uses cameras, sensors, and machine learning to ensure that garbage ends up in the landfill and recyclables don't. They're tackling a problem that most environmentalists would agree needs to be solved: only about 20 percent of what goes in those blue bins actually ends up recycled, according to CleanRobotics co-founder Tanner Cook.