'Smart' garbage collection helps China save billions
Operating in China for a year and a half, Lovere’s equipment demonstrates how technology monetizes waste streams, helping to move from a passive approach to recycling to the active participation of people in the processes of the circular economy.
As noted in bb.lv information, residents of the Celestial Empire can enter a phone number or scan a QR code to recycle such items as plastic bottles, cardboard boxes, old clothes, takeaway bags and plastic containers for food products through “smart” garbage bins.
The equipment automatically weighs the items and calculates, based on the current tariff of approximately 0.6 yuan per kilogram, the amount to be paid, which is credited directly to the user’s account.
So far, Lovere’s activities have spread to 38 Chinese cities, where over 50,000 smart bins have been installed and 2 million tons of waste has been recycled. This has benefited more than 30 million local users.
According to Zhang Kang, head of the production department of Lovere in Hangzhou, thanks to the Internet of Things technology, sensors are triggered when the containers are filled, and an automated sorting center separates the recyclables into more than 80 types. It is then sent for onward distribution to enterprises in the recycling sector.
