How Tacoma uses AI-enabled truck-mounted smart cameras to improve recycling

Author | Elvira Esparza

This article was first published by Tomorrow.City. Find it here.

The city of Tacoma (Washington) has launched a pilot project using smart cameras installed on garbage trucks to reduce contamination in household recycling. The aim of this program is to help residents recycle more effectively and decrease the amount of waste placed in the wrong bins. According to Tacoma’s data, around 22% of the waste placed in recycling bins should actually be thrown in the regular trash.

The initiative was launched in response to problems caused by misclassified waste, which often results in potentially recyclable materials ending up in landfills or incurring high recycling costs. Thanks to the smart cameras installed on waste collection trucks that capture images during pickup, the system allows:

• Recycling contamination to be measured in real time.
• The volume of materials ending up in landfills to be reduced.
• Direct information to be provided to residents through informational postcards and recycling tips.

Tacoma’s Solid Waste Management Division has launched this project in collaboration with the Canadian company Prairie Robotics. The two-year pilot project is funded by a $1.8 million grant ($1.5 million euros) from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Recycling Education and Outreach Grant Program.

How the AI program works

The technology behind this project is based on artificial intelligence applied to waste management. Smart cameras, equipped with machine learning algorithms, capture images of the waste and can automatically and accurately identify items that should not be in the recycling bin. This enables contaminants such as plastic bags, organic waste, or non-recyclable materials to be detected. The system helps both municipal workers and residents by providing direct and specific information about recycling practices.

As garbage trucks collect waste, the smart cameras on board capture images and detect items that are not properly recycled in real time. If recycling contamination is detected because the waste is incorrectly sorted, the first step is to determine the source of that contamination. Once identified, residents are notified of the violation through these images and are provided with tips on how to recycle waste correctly.

In the first phase of the pilot program, residents only receive informational messages to help them learn what can and cannot be recycled, with no penalties applied. The goal is not to punish but to reshape the recycling culture through education and ongoing support.

The smart cameras also document the items collected but do not identify people or private property, so any data that could identify them is blurred to protect privacy. By using smart cameras, Tacoma city officials aim to understand residents’ recycling habits and use this information to develop messages that help improve recycling and reduce pollution.

The program will be conducted in different residential areas of the city, which will expand over the two-year duration. The cameras will monitor the recycling activity for most of the 57,000 residents who receive the city’s waste and recycling services. For now, it has been launched on one truck, but the program will be implemented in phases over the next two years until it reaches seven recycling trucks by June 2027.

What sets Tacoma’s recycling system apart from other cities?

Garbage collection trucks had previously used cameras for safety and fleet management. The innovation with AI-equipped cameras is that they allow real-time measurement of contamination in recycling.

This AI camera–equipped waste collection system is also used in other American cities such as Centerville (Ohio), Livermore (California), and Springdale (Arkansas) through Prairie Robotics. The difference with Tacoma is that the program is designed to monitor contamination by residential areas, whereas in other cities the data is collected at the municipal or regional level.

This approach allows messages to be tailored to each neighborhood, gradually changing residents’ habits. It is not just about improving recycling statistics, but about moving toward a more sustainable urban model that is aware of the impact waste has on the environment, aiming for a zero-waste strategy.

Recycling practices in the city of Tacoma

This program is part of the processes Tacoma has introduced in recent years within its recycling system. In 2023, it launched a program with the company Mill to separate food waste in households, with a surprising result: participating households managed to separate 10 times more organic waste than the average.

In 2020, curbside glass collection was suspended due to market instability and new international recycling regulations, and it resumed this year at drop-off points distributed throughout the city. This system reduces contamination, manages rising recycling costs, and ensures an effective and sustainable recycling program.

In addition, the city offers special recycling points for items such as Christmas lights, electronic waste, or hazardous materials, and provides residents with extra bags and containers free of charge.

These projects demonstrate that Tacoma is committed to testing innovative solutions to address recycling challenges. By applying artificial intelligence, the city aims to tackle one of the biggest recycling challenges: classification mistakes.

Images | Praire Robotics, Kenny Eliason