Waste management: Building intelligent recycling bins

Everything is connected in a city, including the consumption of goods with waste management. In this workshop, the teenagers create a fictional neighborhood and place in it five intelligent recycling bins, which they build with cardboard, glue, scissors and electronic components, such as sensors, microcontrollers and leds. The bins are connected to a central computer and, with proper programming, they send a signal to inform us when exactly they are full.

Through a role play, the teenagers form a group of citizens that throw their waste in the bin and a group of employees at the waste management service. Then they plan the routes of the garbage trucks aiming at the minimization of fuel consumption. After examining the data, a discussion about climate change follows, and the teenagers get a different perspective on what material recycling means.