Harnessing Machine Learning for Effective Waste Classification and Recycling

The world produces nearly 3.5 million tons waste every day so it is important to improve waste management and recycling system. This paper defines how machine learning can classify waste, specifically using VGG16 CNN model to classify 9 types of recyclable materials such as light bulbs, paper, plastic, organic, glass, batteries, clothes, metal and e-waste .We had used nearly 8000+ images from Google Images and Dreamstime.com to test VGG16 model and compare it with another model named as Inceptionv3. But Inceptionv3 showed higher accuracy (~90%) ,and it did not work well when tested on real data. In contrast, the VGG16 model which initially had lower accuracy of (~70%), performed better when tested on real-world scenarios. We also developed a web application which not only classifies the waste but also provides the valuable information to help people how to minimize waste reduction and maximize recycling. The classified images of the waste and its respective findings will also be shared with local authorities to enhance better recycling efforts. Hence this study focuses on need to select right models for waste classification and suggests looking into another machine learning techniques in future.