Tacoma to use AI cameras to check your recycling bin. Here’s why
Tacoma officials will use an artificial intelligence-powered camera in a new pilot program that will identify contaminated items in the city’s curbside recycling program to educate residents about what can and can’t be recycled.
The two-year program is funded with a $1.8 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Recycling Education and Outreach Grant Program, part of the city’s effort to reduce contamination in Tacoma’s residential recycling. The cameras are trained to identify items like certain plastic bags that can’t be recycled but over time will learn to identify new contaminants, according to a news release from the city.
Preston Peck, a sustainability analyst with the city, said that when the cameras identify contaminated items in recycling bins, residents at the location will receive postcards educating them about the incorrectly placed item. The postcards will include images of the contaminated material.
“A few [postcards] will need to be more generic when a specific recycling bin cannot be confirmed to be associated with a specific customer during the review process,” Peck told The News Tribune in an email.
The technology comes from Prairie Robotics, a Canadian company that has implemented such technology “across North America,” according to its website. Peck said the cameras will focus on documenting the items collected in the truck and not people or private property. The data will be stored “securely and safely” in the United States and will not be sold or shared with third parties, he said.
“Any images that inadvertently include faces or license plates are automatically blurred before the image is uploaded to protect privacy,” Peck said. “Residents will only see items identified as contamination in their recycling bin on their postcards and everything else will be blurred.”
Peck said only one truck is currently using the cameras, which is covering recycling pick-up routes across the city. The program will be rolled out in phases over the next year in seven recycling trucks and will continue until the grant’s two years are up about June 2027.
