Young Innovators Win e-Waste HACK BKK 2024 with “Intelligence Bin” Idea

Thailand was second just to Indonesia, of all Southeast Asian nations, in terms of e-waste amount. Even worse is the fact that proper disposal, recycling and upcycling of e-waste are still very limited in Thailand. When e-waste pollutes the environment, human health is directly affected. People therefore are “dying slowly” from those impacts.

In other words, “an environmental crisis” has already started and requires urgent solutions. True Corporation, in collaboration with partners, has thus recently organized e-Waste HACK BKK 2024 to thwart the crisis.

The event encouraged the new generation to brainstorm and develop practical ideas about how to upcycle e-waste into innovative electronic devices in line with the Circular Economy concept for Bangkokians’ better quality of life. Participants were nudged to address educational, environmental, safety and public health challenges. 

Lasting nearly four months, e-Waste HACK BKK 2024 attracted 129 teams and featured three rounds. Emerging as the ultimate winner in the higher-educational category from the fierce competition was “Pak Ka Pok”. Team members were Noey, Atom and Bas, third-year computer engineering students from Khon Kaen University. The team won the top award for its Intelligence Bin.

Tackling the root cause of problems

Thidalak Mueangphaen described Intelligence Bin as the fruit of her team’s determination to address a big waste problem at its source – the absence of waste segregation. According to her, mixing all types of waste hampers recycling/upcycling efforts. Garbage, in particular, tends to spawn the breeding grounds of pathogens. When mixed with other types of waste, it makes recycling plastic bottles, cans and paper too complicated.

Currently, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has divided the capital into two zones – Inner Bangkok and Outer Bangkok – for waste management purposes. Its staff collect waste from designated spots from 6 pm to dawn every day. Each spot takes the staff about 12 minutes on average.

Following the collection, waste is forwarded to the nearest waste separation plant. There are three such plants in Bangkok – one in On-Nut, another in Sai Mai and the other in Nong Khaem. Surveys show more than 32% of collected waste is garbage. In this category are general waste, organic waste and hazardous waste that must be buried in landfills or incinerated only. 

Noticing that the waste problem was turning critical, the “Pak Ka Pok” team racked their brains in search of good solutions. Team members researched information, technologies and methods that looked practical enough.

Finally, they decided to develop an Intelligence Bin Modular Engine for automatic waste separation. Their invention was enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). The modular system was their choice because the team appreciated both its independent functions and its compatibility with BMA bins. Its structure made it possible to adjust size and reduce redundant costs as well.

Their innovation consists of three key components: 1) Camera that captures an image for AI analytics with AI trained to learn and process input efficiently; 2. A belt system that is activated by sensors working in coordination with AI. In other words, after AI identifies the type of waste, this system will push each piece of waste into a proper box; and 3) an Infrared device that helps Intelligence Bin alert staff when it is getting full. Staff will be able to check the amount of waste in bins via an application.

Thanks to such an approach, waste collection planning will naturally become more efficient. The second and third key components operate with the help of IoT.

Basic calculations suggest Intelligence Bin is capable of separating 114 kilos of waste a day. With its support, BMA staff then should be able to save more than 20 hours of work time each week. 

Insights-driven Innovations

While the innovation is practical, it will take behavioural changes to generate real impacts. Members of “Pak Ka Pok” therefore came up with the idea of “Reward Points & Notifications”. They decided to integrate “Gamification & Reward Point Collection” into their innovation. Based on their concept, every time a person drops waste at a designated spot for proper recycling, he/she can scan a QR code to collect reward points. A game will also be developed to motivate more people to use Intelligence Bin.

Reward Points and Gamification have the potential to boost Bangkokians’ awareness of the importance of waste segregation, reduce the amount of waste destined for landfill, curb environmental impacts, add value to recyclables, and create job opportunities or promote industries related to recycling/upcycling. 

As Intelligence Bin innovation was created based on the upcycling concept, nearly 80% of its components were upcycled from waste. Its camera component came from an old notebook. Its Proximity Sensor, which supports waste separation, uses an inductor of discarded universal power supply (UPS). Its infrared sensor, meanwhile, came from an old electrical circuit. Its Stepper Motor, which controls the module, is made from an old computer’s power supply. 

Translation idea into Prototype

Noey said all her team members were interested in the hackathon because it was an interesting challenge and offered an opportunity to solve real-life problems. “This contest required us to upcycle e-Waste into something that will benefit Bangkokians in safety, environmental, educational or public-health aspects,” she said. After being informed of the focus of the hackathon, the Pak Ka Pok Team’s members contemplated the problems facing Bangkok and the possibility of developing an innovation based on their AI and programming knowledge as a solution.

Finally, they agreed to develop an Intelligence Bin. Designed to ease environmental problems, their invention focused on waste management. Bangkok is a “metropolis” with over 10 million residents and travellers. 

“In the beginning, we intended to make “Intelligence Bin” very smart. To tell the truth, we initially thought that our bin should be able to separate four types of waste namely 1) Organic waste; 2) General waste; 3) Glass or plastic bottles; and 4) Aluminum cans. But because we had just a little more than one month to materialize our vision, our prototype couldn’t be complicated. That’s why our Intelligence Bin can just divide waste into two categories: the recyclable and the unrecyclable,” Atom said.

Pre-Test in Real Life

As AI is at the heart of Intelligence Bin, the Pak Ka Pok Team was aware that data used for AI training had much importance. Its AI program would be smart only if it was fed with good input and trained well. Intelligence Bin has mainly relied on “visual data”. Several obstacles happened during its training.

The resolution of e-waste images from the Intelligent Bin was very low. Images of e-waste on the internet or those recorded by modern smartphones, meanwhile, had high resolution. Intelligence Bin, at the onset, thus was unable to distinguish different types of waste. Pak Ka Pok Team needed to solve the problem by finding a camera with a low resolution to take photos of actual e-waste. Then, those images were fed into the Intelligence Bin for training. With this approach, AI processing has got much better.

“Visual images are complicated by nature. When we take a picture of an object, we look at it from one specific perspective. Such perspective, dimension and other environmental factors affect images. We need to take all these factors into account to train our AI to perform with maximum efficiency,” said Noey, who is mainly responsible for Intelligent Bin’s programming. 

Atom, who is in charge of hardware, said financial factors could not be overlooked either. Upcycling e-waste under a limited budget was very challenging, he added. Pak Ka Pok Team needed to carefully plan the development of their innovation throughout the hackathon, with financial matters in mind.  

“To us, e-Waste HACK BKK 2024 was like a pre-test before we stepped into the real world. This event has honed our soft skills, which are essential to people working in technical fields. Soft skills here cover communication skills, presentation skills, management skills, creative thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration. Thanks to this contest, we could try brainstorming and exploring new fields. We even tried drawing up a marketing strategy. This is a fantastic opportunity for learning outside classrooms,” said Bas, who oversees his team’s overall efforts.

Although e-Waste HACK BKK 2024 has already concluded, efforts to solve Bangkok’s waste problem will continue. Intelligence Bin will be upgraded and expanded for actual usage. Young innovators from the winning Pak Ka Pok Team, meanwhile, are rewarded with scholarships for them to study for a master’s degree in IoT and information engineering at the Factory of Engineering, the King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang.