{"id":140446,"date":"2025-09-13T07:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T07:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/140446\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T07:00:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T07:00:14","slug":"ai-tech-identifies-central-okanagan-properties-and-hazardous-material-in-their-bins-okanagan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/140446\/","title":{"rendered":"AI tech identifies Central Okanagan properties and hazardous material in their bins – Okanagan"},"content":{"rendered":"

New technology that uses artificial intelligence (AI) may have homeowners\u00a0 in the Central Okanagan<\/a> thinking twice about what they put into their curbside garbage and recycling bins.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Chad Evans is a recycling truck driver and says hazardous materials<\/a> are ending up in the truck far too often.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day,\u201d he said. \u201cProbably one in 10 bins.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hoped those numbers can be reduced with a new system being used across the Regional District of Central Okanagan (RDCO).<\/p>\n

Called \u2018Prairie Robotics\u2019, the system involves mounted cameras that capture images of material going into the recycling trucks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the bin is being emptied into the truck, that is when the hundreds or thousands of pictures are being taken and that\u2019s getting sent back to our system,\u201d said Brody Hawkins, district manager for Environmental 360 Solutions (E360s), the company contracted for curbside pickup by the RDCO.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat that system does with those pictures is it uses AI to monitor all the contamination.\u201d<\/p>\n

The technology is then able to track the contaminated material back to the home involved.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"For<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use the GPS coordinates of the garbage bin to identify the address,\u201d said Hawkins.<\/p>\n

The RDCO then sends an information postcard to that address.<\/p>\n

The postcard is meant to act as a warning but one that could be followed by fines if the problem persists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have an image of what the truck is seeing, so they can see exactly what they put in there that doesn\u2019t belong and some more information,\u201d said Cynthia Coates, supervisor of solid waste services for RDCO.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:59
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHigh levels of garbage found in Central Okanagan recycling\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Some of the hazardous material that is still ending up in curbside bins too often range from corrosive, flammable, or poisonous items to less obvious things like batteries and battery operated devices, such as e-cigarettes, power tools, and smoking alarms.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tCruise passenger with $16K gambling debt jumps overboard to avoid repayment\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tTyler Robinson: What we know about the Charlie Kirk shooting suspect\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

According to Coates, propane tanks are also being discarded in the bins.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m seeing notification of fires at both our landfill and in our trucks and in our recycling facilities more than ever,\u201d Coates said. \u201cSo I think it\u2019s becoming more prevalent than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July, a fire erupted in the hopper of a recycling\u00a0 truck in Kelowna.<\/p>\n

The driver was forced to dump the load in a nearby parking lot.<\/p>\n

A metal fuel filter improperly placed in a recycling bin was the suspected cause.<\/p>\n

Right now, four of the seven E360s recycling trucks are equipped with the new AI technology.<\/p>\n

The new system will be installed in the remaining three in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:08
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRecycling truck fire sparks warning from Central Okanagan\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New technology that uses artificial intelligence (AI) may have homeowners\u00a0 in the Central Okanagan thinking twice about what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[11023,49,48,15222,75554,295,75555,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-140446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ai-technology","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-central-okanagan","12":"tag-curbside-recylcing","13":"tag-environment","14":"tag-hazardous-materials","15":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}