Binit is bringing AI to trash

Early attempts at making dedicated hardware to deal with artificial intelligence smarts have been criticized as, well, a bit rubbish. But here’s an AI gadget-in-the-making that’s all about rubbish, literally: Finnish startup Binit is applying large language models’ (LLMs) image processing capabilities to tracking household trash.

AI for sorting the stuff we throw away to spice up recycling efficiency on the municipal or business level has garnered attention from entrepreneurs for some time now (see startups like Greyparrot, TrashBot, Glacier). But Binit founder, Borut Grgic, reckons household trash tracking is untapped territory.

“We’re producing the primary household waste tracker,” he tells TechCrunch, likening the forthcoming AI gadgetry to a sleep tracker but on your trash tossing habits. “It’s a camera vision technology that’s backed by a neural network. So we’re tapping the LLMs for recognition of normal household waste objects.”

The early stage startup, which was founded through the pandemic and has pulled in almost $3M in funding from an angel investor, is constructing AI hardware that’s designed to live (and look cool) within the kitchen — mounted to cabinet or wall near where bin-related motion happens. The battery-powered gadget has on board cameras and other sensors so it could get up when someone is nearby, letting them scan items before they’re put within the trash.

Grgic says they’re counting on integrating with business LLMs — principally OpenAI’s GPT — to do image recognition. Binit then tracks what the household is throwing away — providing analytics, feedback and gamification via an app, akin to a weekly rubbish rating, all geared toward encouraging users to cut back how much they toss out.

The team originally attempted to coach their very own AI model to do trash recognition however the accuracy was low (circa 40%). So that they latched onto the thought of using OpenAI’s image recognition capabilities. Grgic claims they’re getting trash recognition that’s almost 98% accurate after integrating the LLM.

Binit’s founder says he has “no idea” why it really works so well. It’s not clear whether a lot of images of trash were in OpenAI’s training data or whether it’s just capable of recognize a lot of stuff due to the sheer volume of information it’s been trained in. “It’s incredible accuracy,” he claims, suggesting the high performance they’ve achieved in testing with OpenAI’s model may very well be right down to the items scanned being “common objects”.

“It’s even capable of tell, with relative accuracy, whether or not a coffee cup has a lining, since it recognises the brand,” he goes on, adding: “So principally, what now we have the user do is pass the article in front of the camera. So it forces them to stabilise it in front of the camera for slightly bit. In that moment the camera is capturing the image from all angles.”

Data on trash scanned by users gets uploaded to the cloud where Binit is in a position to investigate it and generate feedback for users. Basic analytics might be free but it surely’s meaning to introduce premium features via subscription.

The startup can also be positioning itself to change into an information provider on the stuff individuals are throwing away — which may very well be worthwhile intel for entities just like the packaging entity, assuming it could scale usage.

Still, one obvious criticism is do people actually need a high tech gadget to inform them they’re throwing away an excessive amount of plastic? Don’t everyone knows what we’re consuming — and that we should be trying to not generate a lot waste?

“It’s habits,” he argues. “I feel we realize it — but we don’t necessarily act on it.

“We also know that it’s probably good to sleep, but then I put a sleep tracker on and I sleep so much more, though it didn’t teach me anything that I didn’t already know.”

During tests within the US Binit also says it saw a discount of around 40% in mixed bin waste as users engaged with the trash transparency the product provides. So it reckons its transparency and gamification approach may help people transform ingrained habits.

Binit wants the app to be a spot where users get each analytics and data to assist them shrink how much they throw away. For the latter Grgic says additionally they plan to tap LLMs for suggestions — factoring within the user’s location to personalize the recommendations.

“The best way that it really works is — let’s take packaging, for instance — so each piece of packaging the user scans there’s slightly card formed in your app and on that card it says that is what you’ve thrown away [e.g. a plastic bottle]… and in your area these are alternatives that you possibly can consider to cut back your plastic intake,” he explains.

He also sees scope for partnerships, akin to with food waste reduction influencers.

Grgic argues one other novelty of the product is that it’s “anti-unhinged consumption”, as he puts it. The startup is aligning with growing awareness and motion of sustainability. A way that our throwaway culture of single-use consumption must be jettisoned, and replaced with more mindful consumption, reuse and recycling, to safeguard the environment for future generations.

“I feel like we’re on the cusp of [something],” he suggests. “I feel individuals are beginning to ask themselves the questions: Is it really vital to throw all the pieces away? Or can we start eager about repairing [and reusing]?”

Couldn’t Binit’s use-case just be a smartphone app, though? Grgic argues that this relies. He says some households are comfortable to make use of a smartphone within the kitchen after they may be getting their hands dirty during meal prep, as an example, but others see value in having a dedicated hands-free trash scanner.

It’s price noting additionally they plan to supply the scanning feature through their app without spending a dime so they will offer each options.

Up to now the startup has been piloting its AI trash scanner in five cities across the US (NYC; Austin, Texas; San Francisco; Oakland and Miami) and 4 in Europe (Paris, Helsniki, Lisbon and Ljubjlana, in Slovakia, where Grgic is originally from).

He says they’re working towards a business launch this fall — likely within the US. The value-point they’re targeting for the AI hardware is around $199, which he describes because the “sweet spot” for smart home devices.