Al Ain: An innovative recycling bin at UAE University (UAEU) that smiles at users has helped to collect more bottles than a normal recycling bin — and has also shown that recycling can be fun.
The bin makes the sound of clinking coins once a polythene terephthalate (PET) bottle is placed in it and a smiley face appears on an LCD screen above it, said Dr Jose Berengueres, assistant professor at the College of Information Technology and head of the project team.
The smiling bin, placed in the IT college lobby, collected 360 bottles over four weeks, with an average weekly collection of 95 bottles, compared with just 103 bottles collected in a normal recycling bin over the same period.
“The results are encouraging and show that recycling can be a fun and rewarding experience,” he said.
The bin, developed by a team of IT students at UAEU, was recently shown in a video at a human robot interaction conference in Tokyo where it bagged two prizes, said a university spokesperson.
A short version of the video can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xofgk_hguo&feature=player_embedded.
“Fun rewards work better than offers of cash or other material incentives and we have proved that by using just a smile,” said Dr Berengueres.
The smiling bin took just five weeks to conceive and produce and cost approximately Dh1,500 — the cost of a computer and a sensor to detect bottles being placed inside.
Fatima Al Suwairi, an Emirati student, wrote the software code that produced the smiley face response while other students helped analyse the research findings.
The team is now testing a cheaper alternative, an Android tablet, he added.
The team is also talking to government authorities and businesses about rolling out similar devices. The UAE has one of the world’s highest waste-generation rates and very little of it is recycled.
According to studies carried out in 2010, it was estimated that Abu Dhabi residents produced between 1.8kg and 2.4kg waste daily per person. If this remains the same, the Abu Dhabi Government could be spending as much as Dh22 billion a year on waste management by 2030, said Dr Berengueres.
