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Comment by alexaholic | Hacker News Reader

I live in the EU, where I have five separate waste streams: glass, paper, plastic/metal, RVM plastic, and general trash. They all fill at different rates, while the collection schedule is essentially nondeterministic. The only reliable signal is that they arrive at 6 a.m. sharp in trucks specifically engineered to maximize acoustic output.

My solution is similarly overengineered: a vision system combined with an olfactory system feeds into a biological neural network, which monitors the bins and determines when intervention is required.

The neural network is annoyingly power-hungry, occasionally unreliable, and has yet to support OTA firmware updates. I also have a Home Assistant as a backup for when the neural network fails. It provides a gentle nudge that perhaps the bins need taking out.

Shocking, I know.

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> The only reliable signal is that they arrive at 6 a.m. sharp in trucks specifically engineered to maximize acoustic output.

This gave me a chuckle. It seems almost every where in the world this is true. Ofcourse it is quiet outside around that time, amplifying the effect, but I am always amazed why loud things always need to happen so early. Maybe I should become a morning person, but prefer dark, silent nights for concentration.

In my area half the issue is cars being parked on the way, which is why the truck has to approach the bins in reverse, which is particularly loud.

The other half is buildings being spaced 7m apart, because that's the minimum allowable at this height. The echo is enormous.

That being said it's still more tolerable than the people absolutely punching it through our 30km/h street with their modified exhausts and windows rolled down - as if the point for them was to lose hearing as fast as possible.

> punching it through our 30km/h street with their modified exhausts and windows rolled down

Bring on the EV revolution.

They’ll find some other way of inserting themselves though.

EV can drive some siiiick bass..

EVs these days typically have speakers that produce loud noise at low speeds, louder than a lot of ICE vehicles. I had to bypass a couple on my vehicle before it would actually be quiet. That had the nice side effect of disabling the beep when I lock the doors, too (which wasn't necessary anyway as I can already hear the locks + see the ambers flash).

Difference is these speakers never output the 80dB+ those modified exhausts do. Also, they don't produce infrasounds, which to me personally are actually the worst aspect of all of this.

Oh I agree the modified exhausts are super ass. Every time I hear one I want to report them to police. I never actually do, but I often secretly wish someone would...

> It seems almost every where in the world this is true.

The metropolitan area near me have had electric trash trucks for some years (https://www.sustainabletruckvan.com/renault-trucks-clean-cit...), which when you walk near them, are shockingly silent, for how large and bulky they still are. I'm not sure how many been deployed, the "old" ones are still all over the place, and noisy as everywhere else, but surely these "Renault Trucks E-Tech D and D Wide electric trucks" they talk about must have been deployed elsewhere too?

for me it's not the truck that's that loud... it's the shaking of the trash can and dropping it on the pavement to fall over that makes the noise

What city/country is that? Your must have the most silent trash trucks in the world if it's the trash can that makes the sound and not the vehicle and hydraulics themselves! Very curious if those are electric already then perhaps?

When I was visiting Taiwan the garbage trucks don't seem to start that early but instead of picking up kerbside bins they just drive around slowly playing a synthesized tune like fur elise and that is the signal for residents to then carry their trash bags out to the truck for disposal.

> I live in the EU, where I have five separate waste streams: glass, paper, plastic/metal, RVM plastic, and general trash.

In Toronto, Canada (and Ontario generally?) we use single-stream recycling:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-stream_recycling

So we have organic waste (food scraps, etc; green bin), recycling (blue), and everything else ("garbage"; black). Organics/green gets picked up every week, blue and black alternate (always on the same day: so one week green+blue, next week green+black).

For hazardous stuff you take it to a depot or wait for a city community event nearby:

* https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/recycling-organics-...

This past year the provincial government made it so that municipalities do not have to handle recycling anymore, but it is now the responsibility of the manufacturers ("producer responsibility model")

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling_in_Canada#Ontario

* https://www.circularmaterials.ca/what-is-epr/

Is there a reason why all these separate streams are used where you live?

I see several reasons listed in the first link in your comment.

Oh this wouldn't work in many countries like those in the global south. Everything would just go into the garbage bin because it's less of an inconvenience. It's best to force people into rigid unambiguous categories like plastic, paper, food etc. Without giving them an ambiguous option like recyclables, like no one knows what is recyclable.

There some worker would be forced to triage for twenty rupees a day in compensation, and some boss would profit from the recycling revenue.

this happens in either case

Just 5? Lucky you, here (depending on how you count) we're doing 13 fractions.

That’s nuts. Where is ‘here’?

Sounds like Switzerland - different bin for each colour of glass - at least in Zürich.

Same for Germany, but those don't get picked up, you go and throw them into different bins at a collection point (which is why you usually have all the glass in one bag). I'd say Germany has way more separation than Zürich. We have 4-5 at most.

A good Swiss citizen starts their day with going through neighbors' trash and reporting any segregation mistakes.

Please elaborate and educate us. I might be missing a stream but where I live we have three. But most people ignore any rules AND complain when costs go up.

Let's see: 1. paper 2. cardboard 3. organic 4. metal 5. residual waste 6. batteries 7. hazardous waste 8. garden waste 9. plastic 10. indoor wood 11. large items (i.e. furniture) 12. glass 13. electronics

All of which is picked up from my apartment buildings backyard.

> The neural network is annoyingly power-hungry,

I don't think it's power hungry at all! Benchmark it's energy use against SOTA, you will be surprised.

Key word is "annoyingly" One plugs into the wall and only requires maintenance(electrical bill) once a month. The efficient one permanently attached to you requires maintenance several times a day.

Yes, but it's delicious, delicious maintenance. I'd take the joy of eating good food over plugging into a wall to recharge any day

LOL, you’re taking about OpenClaw, right? The neural network not only takes out the bins but also starts posting on HN

No, he's referring to using the human body, brain, and nose to figure out when to take the trash out to the street, with Home Assistant giving a reminder.

I know, just LOL. My “home assistant” would frown at me for the “home assistant” epitheton.

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