Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Zero Waste Campaign Management Platform Using AI
EPA Contract Number: 68HERC22C0022Title: Zero Waste Campaign Management Platform Using AI
Investigators: Balachandran, Nikhil
Small Business: Zabble Inc.
EPA Contact: Richards, April
Phase: I
Project Period: December 1, 2021 through May 31, 2022
Project Amount: $100,000
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I (2022) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
Description:
The purpose of this project was three-fold:
1. To demonstrate that visual inspections are an alternative but effective method to assess the state of the materials being deposed of in a facility.
2. To further the development of tools required to simplify the visual inspection process to identify bin fullness and contamination levels and detect items from the snap of a photo via a mobile device.
3. To establish a viable business plan with paying customers from health and educational institutions who have zero waste goals but lack the tools to track the efficiency of their programs.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
Initial results of the AI model in the real world have shown an average accuracy of 75% with a 25 millisecond response time to detect materials belonging to 8 categories such as cans, cups, snack wrappers, cardboard, paper, plastic film, containers and napkins.
Although, not fully available to all customers, Zabble has chosen to specifically deploy the model to select customers to gather feedback and further improve the accuracy the model before full-scale launch.
Notwithstanding the delays caused initially while hiring the right members for the sales and product development roles, Zabble was able to quickly adapt to the changing conditions. Training and ramp up times for sales personnel were slower than expected resulting in slower growth during the project period.
Development timelines were delayed owing to the lack of a dedicated program manager for this project coupled with critical rollouts already scheduled prior to the project start date.
However, sufficient progress was made in building the infrastructure to train the AI model and overcome algorithmic and deployment challenges to improve the accuracy from various device orientations, distances from bins and lighting conditions and also reduce the response time to detect items.
Moreover, during this phase, a major effort was conducted to retool our web-based interface to support the cataloguing and rendering of images for both internal teams and customers. Cutting-edge technology to index and search for images was deployed to our customers with sub-millisecond response times for search results based on items and other metadata associated with the image.
Zabble also published in blog form on its website the results of a past project evaluating the accuracy of estimating contamination.
We have released the results of a study aimed at helping organizations determine a process to estimate contamination accurately. https://www.zabbleinc.com/blog-post/how-large-of-a-sample-size-do-you-need-to-estimate-contamination-accurately
Conclusions:
This project successfully validated the need and utility for a campaign-based approach to zero waste management for the disposal of materials by large institutions. Several educational and health institutions have utilized Zabble’s Mobile Tagging platform during this project period to track their zero waste programs and measure the success of their outreach and educational efforts.
The project also demonstrated activities resulting in the end-to-end planning, implementation and deployment of an AI model that formed the basis of measurement for the campaign-based approach. Prior to this project, Zabble had already deployed an AI model to accurately classify the fullness of a bin from a photo taken via a mobile device. During this project period, Zabble extended the capability of the AI model to also detect items belonging to 8 categories such as cans, cups, snack wrappers, cardboard, paper, plastic film, containers and napkins.
Commercialization: Zabble’s commercialization team focussed not only on acquiring new clients in the healthcare and educational markets but also entertained interest from several municipalities in California implementing the new SB1383 legislation and corporations ramping up their efforts to reach zero waste. Further funding will be sought to continue the development and launch the products on the market.
Zabble’s commercialization team attended two industry conferences during this phase, even sponsoring the zero waste lunch for one, in an effort to establish its presence as a leader in waste tracking and campaign management software. During this project period, current customers of Zabble are extending their contract terms for continued access to the Zabble platform for another year. Several new prospective clients are either in the process of signing contracts or already have signed contracts to subscribe to Zabble’s platform for access to Mobile Tagging or Invoice Analytics to help meet their zero waste milestones.
SBIR Phase II:
Zero Waste Management Platform using AIThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.