As a suggestion to all the robotics / computer vision / AI geeks out there: Build an automated trash sorter with a very high degree of accuracy.
If you want the incentive, here it is. Everybody has 3 separate bins. By having 3 separate bins, not only do we force lazy people to think about how they classify their waste into those 3 separate bins, but we also end up with 3 different waste trucks driven by 3 different drivers back and forth between 3 different waste depots. And we still get it wrong, misclassifying compostable things as recyclable, recyclable as trash, etc., forcing us to pay for processing costs to sort out the 40+% of stuff that gets misclassified.
This adds up. Waste management is a $75B industry [0]. Let's break down how money is spent, and how your system will help:
1) 55% is spent on collection. Your sorter can eliminate up to 2/3 of that, but due to variant efficiency factors maybe it is only 1/2. This is about $21B in potential savings.
2) Treatment and disposal account for 20%. This includes remedial sortation (fixing the problems created by people who misclassified their waste), type-based sortation (things like separating glass from plastic, as well as separating the different types of plastic). A good automated sortation system will save at least 20% of these costs, resulting in another $3B in potential savings.
3) There are unaccounted for missed opportunities. Sortation costs force us to make compromises; instead of the more expensive sorting of thermoplastics from thermosets, which would result in higher resale value, we sometimes chop them all up and sell them as a lower valued aggregate for things like road asphalt. I have no idea how much is missed, but I do know that recycled thermoplastics have a resale value that is a good 10x higher than what they get out of that chopped aggregate.
4) Additionally, we have massive landfills that have accumulated billions of tons of trash that, due to oxygen starvation in landfills, isn't biodegrading any time soon. If your system can extract valuable recyclable materials from trash and resell them, you could meaningfully create a second-hand mining industry with basically free land rights. I have trouble seeing anywhere less than 10s of billions of dollars in annual market from this alone.
So there you have it. You can make everyone's lives easier, save us time, save us money, save the environment, and you'll have the waste management industry groveling at your feet at the chance to save them $24B a year, possibly much much more. Do it already.
[0] https://www.gridwaste.com/news/2014/8/20/10l92d52vzaw1zdsf0z...