The Trash Monitor

We are in the final days of the Trash Monitor project, our team has been putting the finishing touches on The Trash Monitor, testing sensors, the conveyor system, and adding the touch screen which will display a recycling presentation. 

Several Fori teams, including mechanical engineering, controls engineering, marketing, human resources, and the manufacturing shop came together to work on this project. Everyone involved truly enjoyed the opportunity to exercise their creative muscles and bring Sa-niya's amazing invention to life. 

In the images, you can see the final CAD design for The Trash Monitor along with one of our engineers wiring a board for the receptacle sensors. One of the reasons we liked this design was its practicality and how we can see it used today in many applications from a school hallway to an office complex or a bustling shopping mall.

After completing our recycling research we moved on to sourcing the parts we would need for "The Trash Monitor" and creating the design. We had to find a trash receptacle we could modify and sensors to detect various items and materials being thrown away. Many of the other parts such as the project logo, recycling logo, and conveyor could be 3D printed in our shop, here in Shelby Twp., Michigan. Jordan Zak, one of our mechanical engineers who specializes in 3D printing, created a design concept using CAD software and designed the conveyor model as well. 

The idea for the trash monitor is someone drops what they think is a piece of trash in the bin, and the sensors in the bin detect if the item is trash or if it is a recyclable material. If the item can be recycled or reused it moves onto the conveyor and back to the user. If the item is truly trash it stays in the bin. If an item is recyclable "The Trash Monitor" alerts the user with a buzzing noise and the recycling symbol will light up green. 

Another final aspect of the trash monitor is the information panel on the front of the design. A screen is attached to "The Trash Monitor," this informational screen helps the user learn more about waste, recycling, and how we can all make small changes with our trashy habits for a better community and better world.

To start this project we dove into the world of recycling. As an automation company, we had an idea of how we would bring The Trash Monitor to life but we needed to learn more about recycling and the materials the project would filter. 

Many products and items that we throw away can easily have a second, third, or forth life and we are excited to conceptualize this design which helps people identify items that are not actually trash.