A prototype "smart bin" developed by researchers at Australia's University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) can sort recyclable materials automatically through a combination of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and machine vision. UTS' Xu Wang said the system can categorize different types of waste such as glass bottles, metal cans, and several varieties of plastic. "We have a camera and we're running an AI algorithm to classify different types of plastics and then we use IoT [Internet of Things] and other robotics technology to sort the waste into the bins," Wang explained. The researchers envision smart bins deployed in shopping centers, schools, cinemas, businesses, and airports.

Despite the best intentions, the sad reality is that only a fraction of the plastics we dutifully separate from the rest of our waste is ever truly recycled. And one of the biggest contributing factors to this state of affairs is that plastic recycling isn't properly sorted. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), almost half of the overall waste generated annually in the country is recycled. But in New South Wales alone, only 10 per cent of the state's 800,000 tonnes of plastics are recycled because they are not sorted properly, according to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). "The recycling process is quite complicated. If you go to the supermarket or for the daily recycling you need to know how to properly place all the recyclable (items), like bottles or others, into the right bins. You need to know the labels, know the icons," says Dr Xu Wang, from the School of Electrical and Data Engineering at the University of Technology Sydney.