“It really is an enhanced program that the city had in the past called ‘Feet on the Street’ which was very labor-intensive and it took people going door-to-door looking through carts, identifying contaminants if they did and then notifying the residents there, so what this is going to do is speed up that program.”
City of Grand Rapids Public Works Director John Gorney says this partnership between the city and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, The Recycling Partnership and Prairie Robotics, will place cameras, global positioning systems, or GPS, and computers on three of the city’s recycling trucks.
“When the recycle carts are dumped into the hopper, it looks directly at the material that is in the hopper, so it has a GPS location to pinpoint location for an address, and then it’s also looking at the material in the hopper and identifies items that are not allowed at the county’s recycling facility.”
From there, the city can send customized feedback to the resident via a postcard or digital notification about how they can recycle properly.
Gorney says this is an educational campaign and believes most people try to do their best when it comes to recycling but hopes these new tools will help the public do better. The three trucks will be cycled through routes so that every street in Grand Rapids is covered by the new technology.
The program is completely funded by The Recycling Partnership through a grant program, costing around $100,000 to outfit three trucks with the new tech.
