MIT to track trash and aid recycling

Archiv – United States | A team of researchers at the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has established a project known as Trash Track to monitor the progress of refuse from start to finish. The team will electronically tag pieces of waste to trace their voyage through the disposal systems of New York City and Seattle in a bid to educate people about the impact of refuse on the environment and to make them aware of what they throw out.United States | A team of researchers at the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has established a project known as Trash Track to monitor the progress of refuse from start to finish. The team will electronically tag pieces of waste to trace their voyage through the disposal systems of New York City and Seattle in a bid to educate people about the impact of refuse on the environment and to make them aware of what they throw out.
’Trash is one of today’s most pressing issues – both directly and as a reflection of our attitudes and behaviours,’ says Professor Carlo Ratti, Head of MIT’s SENSEable City Lab. ’Our project aims to reveal the disposal process of our everyday objects, as well as to highlight potential inefficiencies in today’s recycling and sanitation systems. The project could be considered the urban equivalent of nuclear medicine – when a tracer is injected and followed through the human body.’
Volunteers in New York and Seattle will allow individual items of refuse to be fitted with wireless location markers, known as ’trash tags’, which will report back to a central server where the data can be analysed and viewed in real time.
’Trash Track aims to make the removal chain more transparent,’ says the lab’s Associate Director Assaf Biderman. ’We hope that the project will promote behavioural change and encourage people to make more sustainable decisions about what they consume and how it affects the world around them.’
The public will be able to see the results of the study on-line and at special exhibits at the Architectural League in New York City and the Seattle Public Library.