Up to 85% of residual waste could be recycled if waste separation is done properly at the source. Unfortunately, this is often not the case, resulting in valuable raw materials being partially incinerated or landfilled. This leads to more CO2 emissions, fewer options for recycling and increased costs. Sealed Cycle solves this through a trash can that separates waste using AI.

Owner Thomas Voets says, “This weekend we tested how people interact with our bin and how user-friendly it is. Because there was a diverse audience, we learned a huge amount from the interactions with visitors of Le Guess Who? This way we were able to see what works and what doesn’t and how we can help the user to throw every piece of waste into the correct bin. All these interactions give us an idea of how to design the product so that everyone can handle it properly. With that information, we will continue to develop our product further, to eventually enable accurate source separation everywhere.”