Intelligent Recycling

We’ve come a long way since the first steps of digitalizing waste management when electric data terminals revolutionized refuse collectors’ effectivity on everyday working routines.  Nowadays largely developed mobile devices enable new digital service innovations targeted all the way to the consumer.

Vestia Oy is a waste management company owned by 16 municipalities within the Jokilaakso area. Lately, the company has taken an enormous leap towards digitizing its services, making them the trailblazer of technological development in its field.

Vestia’s CEO Olavi Sainio introduced the Intelligent Recycling concept, co-designed with Media Tailor, on the 21. of September during the opening ceremony for Vestia’s recycling yard’s new distance control centre.

This innovative solution is based on easier sorting of waste with the cloud-based media management platform Media Pocket. The core of the solution lies in Media Pocket’s agility and advanced AI image recognition technology.

Convenient 3-step process for the recycler from picture to instructions

When the development of the service entity is finished, a resident of the municipal can use their mobile devices to send a picture of their recyclable object to Vestia’s internet servers.

From there, the picture automatically transfers through the cloud to AI image recognition to analyze Media Pocket’s media management platform. Media Pocket’s AI processes the picture and identifies the object and its material- whether it’s wood, plastic, metal, etc.

After the fast analysis, Media Pocket sends the recognition information from the analysis back to Vestia’s web servers. The servers will then offer recycling instructions for all materials recognized by AI in return for the taken picture.

Even though the process seems to have multiple steps as a whole, the user receives the instructions in a blink of an eye after uploading their photo. Using AI recognition, the process for the user can be simplified as follows:

The livelihood minister wed Vestia’s distance control center

During the opening ceremony for the new sorting yards, Finland’s very first distance control centre monitoring the sorting yards in real-time was wed. In the future, the resident can get contact with the distance control centre by only pressing one button and is able to execute the service fee needed at the spot. Thanks to the distance control centre, the sorting yard’s opening hours can be extended significantly.

The models are scalable for use for the other waste management companies as well

Waste management is digitalizing rapidly. Who’s able to keep up? The AI image recognition and automated distance monitoring for sorting yards are believed to awake interest for both local and international operators. Innovative solutions supporting the circular economy are important for Finland’s competitiveness.

AI supported cloud-based media management platform can be applied to the most innovative means of use. Vestia’s Intelligent Recycling- concept is a fantastic example of this.

It is great to be a part of enabling a concept that helps the day-to-day life of large numbers of people and to collaborate with a trailblazer of the field utilizing technological solutions. 

Effective recycling and supporting it is both present and future. The small recycling deeds lead together to huge changes. Media Tailor is a responsible company and our values matched instantly with Vestia’s.

– Markus Paul, CEO & Partner, Media Tailor

We are happy to discuss a tailored media management solution for your company’s needs.