Intelligent recycling – Case Vestia

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 routine.  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 their services, making them the trailblazer of technological development in their field.

Vestia’s CEO Olavi Sainio introduced the Intelligent Recycling concept, co-designed with Media Tailor, on the 21. of September 2020 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.

The recently formed collaboration is significant for Media Tailor, as the company supports environmental-friendly actions as best they can in their operations themselves.

The primary objective for the Intelligent Recycling- concept is to offer concrete help with waste management to residents swiftly through their internet browsers.

By using the service, the resident is informed of the nearest recycling point for their waste. The service also helps recognize the material of the object if it’s difficult to tell by eye.

The possibility for AI image recognition, together with the distance control center, helps ensure the fulfilment of orthodox waste management. With the growth of sensibleness and confidence for recycling, the benefits are expected to show by an increase in recycling activity within the area.

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 it’s 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:

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

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.

Markus Paul
CEO & Partner
Media Tailor oy