What’s in your recycling bin?

The city of Holland spied on some residents’ recycling bins for eight weeks in an attempt to keep inappropriate materials out of the bins.

Holland deployed “high-tech cameras, global positioning systems, and computers” to analyze the containers, reads a May 2024 article posted on the city website.

“Holland has partnered with Republic Services and Prairie Robotics to utilize their technology, high-tech cameras, global positioning systems, and computers on recycling trucks used in the city,” a spokesperson for the city wrote. “This technology will scan loads dumped into the recycling trucks and be able to recognize contaminants, such as Styrofoam, plastic bags, or trash. It then will produce customized feedback via a postcard sent to individual households.”

The postcards, the city said, will help educate Holland’s residents about items that aren’t accepted for recycling. These include polystyrene foam, construction materials, trash, and large metal items such as lawnmowers.

“We all can have good intentions to recycle everything, but when contaminants are added, sorting them out of the load costs extra time and money,” the article said.

Holland’s recycling program has a participation rate of 70%, with a 10% contamination rate, according to the city.

“Recycling properly saves our taxpayers money by reducing the cost of sending materials that could have been recycled to the landfill, supports jobs, and improves the health of the environment,” Holland’s Sustainability Manager Dan Broersma said in the article.

“We know residents want to recycle the right way, and through this campaign, we are providing personalized, real-time feedback to help them do just that.”

The city of Holland used cameras to conduct the project, Matt VanDyken, assistant city manager, told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an email.

“The city of Holland was awarded a grant from the Recycling Partnership for continuing education about the city’s Recycling Program in an effort to reduce the contamination rate. As a part of a pilot program, we contracted with Prairie Robotics to install an AI camera inside the city’s recycling truck to capture the contents of the residential recycling bins in an attempt to identify non-conforming material. If such material was identified, a postcard with a photo of the non-conforming contents was mailed to the specific resident.”

“The city is excited to have had this additional educational opportunity to work with our citizens to increase our recycling rates” VanDyken wrote.

CapCon learned about the effort from a family that received information from the city but chose not to recycle.