System for tracking waste or recyclable material including image documentation

Abstract

Systems, methods and devices are provided for tracking and managing waste or recyclable materials, which may include one or more devices enabled to capture and record information about waste material at a point in a distribution chain, as well as information technology systems for collecting, processing, analyzing and otherwise managing information about a large number and variety of streams of waste material. A system includes an imaging device for capturing an image of a batch of waste or recyclable material or a bin for the material, wherein the imaging device is located at or on the originating site, a transport device for the material, or a material handling site that is remote from the originating site.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application 62 / 190,055 (FEED-0001-P01), filed Jul. 8, 2015, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND[0002]1. Field[0003]The present disclosure generally relates to computing and information technology systems, devices, and methods for collecting, managing, measuring, and tracking recyclable and waste materials and providing feedback on the material collected for the purposes of billing, compliance assurance, performance assessment, and the like.[0004]2. Description of the Related Art[0005]Many commercial organizations undertake recycling initiatives with associated goals and incentives. However, in the case of large organizations, such as where the material for recycling may be collected from a plurality of stores and locations, with today's limited information technology infrastructure it may be difficult to track how individual stores are performi...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

In some cases, the collapsed state of the collapsible sleeve allows for easier transportation of the base and the sleeve like a standard wooden palette.

Problems solved by technology

However, in the case of large organizations, such as where the material for recycling may be collected from a plurality of stores and locations, with today's limited information technology infrastructure it may be difficult to track how individual stores are performing, individually or relative to one another, with respect to recycling efficiency and goal compliance.

A large organization that uses a distribution center for the receipt, temporary storage, and redistribution of goods and materials may be able to obtain measurements made at the distribution center that indicate the total amount of material received in a given period from stores in a chain, but with current systems it can be difficult to identify the relative contribution made by each of the different stores.

As a result, individual stores may not be rewarded or penalized based on their actual performance, relative to organizational goals of recycling, which may tend to cause individual stores to undertake only minimal efforts and in turn tend to diminish aggregate success.

In the absence of the means to adequately track recycling efforts, or in the absence of success of those efforts, some organizations and stores may chose not to implement, or to abandon, a recycling or backhauling program.

However, current systems for tracking such information are inadequate, requiring manual tracking of information by untrained employees and lacking facilities for rapid, efficient collection, integration, and analysis of data of disparate types for large numbers of stores.

In situations where third party providers transport recyclables, organic waste, trash and the like for smaller organizations on the return portion of a delivery trip (referred to herein in some cases as “backhaul”), the difficulties associated with adequately tracking material returned by different stores are magnified, as owners may have no effective mechanism for obtaining information about the nature of the contents of a backhaul trip from the third party.

Images