Moving to Europe taught me a lot about rules and recycling. In Europe, household waste is required to be separated into paper, plastic, glass and biological waste. If you make a mistake (such as stuffing the pizza pack in paper), you risk having an irate neighbor knocking on your door and reprimanding you.
But pizza boxes aside, most people know how to reduce waste and recycle correctly, they just don't do it. Now, a startup has found a way to change people's behavior.
Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Binit Technologies was founded in 2021 to minimize waste and reimagine the way we deal with waste today. We build tracking technology powered by machine learning to help households better understand and reduce waste.
Its first hardware product (MVP 2024) is a plug-and-play camera vision device with machine learning capabilities to identify, classify, and quantify individual waste products. A corresponding mobile app connects your device to the Binit and Binit communities for gamification features such as real-time tracking, goal setting, and user contests.
Binit has launched active pilot projects in Austin, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Helsinki, and Berlin to collect and provide transparent data points.
And the results are impressive. For example, residents who participated in the Austin trial found that in just three weeks, he was able to reduce per capita household waste by a whopping 38%.
By gamifying waste with Strava-style leaderboards and other benefits that tap into people's competitiveness and fear of guilt and public humiliation, the company is taking action. I was able to lead to transformation.
To find out more, we caught up with Borut Grgic, Founder and CEO of Binit.
How Binit can change its behavior
Image: Kelly Ellison
Grujic notes that many people were skeptical that tracking waste would lead to behavioral change. But once the device was in place, “people immediately started doing the right thing.”
From accumulation of habits to changes in shopping habits
Grgic argues:
“We have come to understand that our product is a two-step change.
The first is that you feel like shit for your bad behavior. It's not a question of knowledge, it's a question of responsibility. ”
Mr. Grujic told waste management authorities that the problem was not one of knowledge but one of accountability.
“That's why when you have trackers in people's homes, behavior tends to improve quickly.” And waste managers often like to educate people about rules and correct behavior, reminding them of rules and correct behavior. more effective than a promotional brochure or social media post. ”
What follows is a long period in which nothing outwardly changes, but Grzych notices that the data begins to seep into his subconscious.
“And what starts to happen next is people start making different purchasing decisions, because people no longer make purchasing decisions based solely on what this product will do for me. But what are you going to leave behind when you're done?
The company began to notice a pattern emerging, with people identifying themselves as different and saying things like, “I can't shop at my usual supermarket anymore because I'm concerned about the amount of packaging.''
Waste prevention hardware challenges
Image: Binit Technologies.
Over the years, I've seen a ton of food waste technology, from fridge cameras and corresponding apps that give you a detailed inventory of your fridge's contents, to expiry date trackers, shopping lists with automatic links to online shopping like Amazon Fresh, and bins that read barcodes and QR codes to track your waste.
Grgic attributes Binit's success to improved cameras and lower hardware costs, explaining:
“For me, building edge devices that can capture images and process them using artificial intelligence is no longer an expensive proposition.
Grujic's notes:
“When you have a QR code, firstly, many users are asked to stand there and place an object so that the QR code can be scanned. So it introduces a new step to something that is already laborious. It will be.
So being able to place this camera near the trash can to take pictures of items being disposed of creates a seamless experience.
This was definitely a surprise to many who tested our product.
I was like, “Oh, I had to stand in front of that and take a picture.”
But that's not the case. ”
That said, configuring the hardware properly was a trial and error process.
Mr. Grujic shared:
“We went through several iterations. As an entrepreneur, you want to have a Ferrari from day one and start adding all these hardware features.
Then the complexity of the system begins to increase.
So we ended up using $750 hardware on the edge.
We wanted to communicate instantly on a screen, so we had all kinds of computing power. The impact on the battery was like a mini phone. However, I couldn't compromise on the short battery life. You can't expect to charge this product any more than you charge your watch or iPhone. ”
So Binit stripped down the hardware to the bare essentials and began testing it with users.
They realized that people simply wanted to be able to check their devices once a day or download data even once a week.
“They run it and check to see how good it is, but probably not compulsively or every day. It's not another Instagram account we're building here.”
It's a daily habit, the kind of habit accumulation that can really leave a big mark. ”
But if you're uncomfortable with the idea of cameras in your kitchen, you're not alone. Mr. Grujic emphasizes that:
“We were very aware of the privacy issues that would arise as a result of this.
We have already introduced things like proximity sensors to make sure this device is turned off except when scanning waste. The maximum height of the camera angle is limited.
We are also looking at different ways to position the device so that it only captures the bin area. ”
Differences in the design of kitchens make it difficult, especially in small apartments. The company considered trash cans with sensors inside, but realized they would be more expensive. So we settled on a leaner product that exists outside the bin and can accommodate any bin configuration.
Binit's technology fights landfill costs
Binit is attracting the attention of both real estate developers and municipal waste management authorities
New York City has very little waste diversion. Most of it ends up in landfills. As a result, waste management costs more than $2 billion annually. Grgic visited the city's sanitation facility and saw trucks dumping waste into huge pits.
The bulldozer compacts the waste and forces it into the container below. The container is sealed and moved to the dock, where it departs aboard a barge. They are then sent by rail to central states where land sales fees are lower. The waste is buried there.
Grisic is at pains to add that the city's main motivation is not sustainability itself, but “money.” And we're running out of space. Therefore, New York City needs to be shipped further afield. And as land for landfills has become harder to permit in the U.S., the costs are getting higher and higher. ”
Binit is also gaining traction among architectural developers who are approaching this issue from an ESG perspective.
“They're intrigued by the idea of reducing waste and signing up to a zero-waste building pledge that comes with smart technology pre-installed.”
What’s next for the company?
Binit is piloting the hardware throughout the summer in Brooklyn and Austin.
Brooklyn Crossing will be the first building in the world to offer residents access to Binit this June. Pilots continue in Texas and are being rolled out in Finland.
The company also plans to sell the device via its website in the fourth quarter of this year.
Lead image: Binit Technologies.
