Grantee Research Project Results

AI-Based Bin Tagging Platform for Regulatory Compliance

EPA Contract Number: 68HERC24C0006
Title: AI-Based Bin Tagging Platform for Regulatory Compliance
Investigators: Balachandran, Nikhil
Small Business: Zabble Inc.
EPA Contact: Richards, April
Phase: II
Project Period: October 17, 2023 through October 16, 2025
Project Amount: $400,000
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II (2024) Recipients Lists
Research Category: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)

Description:

Zabble's mission is to help organizations achieve zero waste by delivering real-time actionable insights using an AI-enabled SaaS platform. Recent legislation could dramatically affect US recycling system in the next few years, whether it’s through infrastructure investments, organics recycling, education, product bans, or bottle bills and extended producer responsibility (EPR) initiatives. One such example is California’s Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Law (SB 1383) driving the next generation of policies aimed at reducing landfill waste. The law establishes new organic waste collection and recycling programs, food recovery programs, and requirements for jurisdictions to procure recycled organic products, contamination monitoring audits and outreach. All of these activities form a coordinated effort to reduce the amount of organic waste that is sent to landfills by 75% by 2025, an action that will greatly reduce the impact of climate change. Besides reducing landfill-bound waste, there is also a need to reduce contamination in recycling streams before they enter the MRFs, shut down machines and increase collection and processing costs. During Phase I of the EPA SBIR Solicitation 68HERC22R0180, Zabble implemented a mobile based platform for jurisdictions and other organizations conducting site visits to measure the success of their outreach programs to boost participation and reduce contamination. The Zabble team, not only spoke with forty three jurisdictions, haulers and consultants in California but also spoke with key organizations outside California who conduct cart tagging programs. Zabble will continue to develop a fully functional, self-serve, efficient, low-cost solution for jurisdictions, haulers and consultants in California by updating the artificial intelligence (AI) model and user workflows. Zabble’s solution has the potential to reduce the time it takes to collect, aggregate and report data by 20x, compared to current methods of using pen and paper, while influencing behavior change via real-time communication and targeted outreach. Zabble’s solution is currently being piloted by two jurisdictions, a hauler and a consulting organization that implements cart tagging programs all across the US. This Phase II project is a great opportunity to bring an innovative technology to help municipalities, and thereby the EPA, realize their environmental goals and educate residents and businesses about the benefits of improving the recycling system.

SBIR Phase I:

AI-Based Bin Tagging Platform for Regulatory Compliance  | Final Report