TECH BYTE: AI Makes Recycling More Effective

DALLAS, Texas (WDEF) — It’s always a good idea to throw out our trash and recycle.

But many of us are doing it incorrectly, and that trash doesn’t actually get recycled.

Tech is now changing that and making it easier than ever to go green.

The Environmental Protection Agency says the U.S. generates more than 292 million tons of trash each year.

Only 69 million tons actually gets recycled. Pretty crazy, right?

Technology is looking to improve those numbers.

AT&T is testing out new artificial intelligence to help their employees recycle the right way.

Meet Oscar! And no, it’s not a coincidence that he shares the same name as the Sesame Street character.

“Oscar will automatically come on, and tell me how to dispose of my waste,” one AT&T employee said.

“I stand right here, show him what I got, and he shows me where to throw it away,” another employee said.

While many people have good intentions, and think they’re recycling their trash, more often than not, items are placed in the wrong bin, and become contaminated.

That keeps those items from being recycled.

Not with this machine.

“Oscar is user friendly,” an employee said. “As soon as you walk up to Oscar, he automatically comes on, you know where to put your plastics, you know where to put your paper waste, so it’s very easy to recycle.”

Oscar is an artificially intelligent trash-sorting system.

AT&T tells News 12 he has a 32-inch display, and an AI-powered camera that recognizes the trash in your hand.

The machine tells you which bin to use – landfill, compost, or recycling.

Oscar is even full of fun facts, reminding you how much recycling makes a difference.

One of them? Recycling one ton of paper can save 17 trees.

Imagine if all of us recycled the right way?

Right now, AT&T says they’re testing out Oscar in its Dallas headquarter cafeteria.

If he’s effective, they’ll use Oscar at other AT&T offices across the country.