The stack

Lean AI.
Zero friction.
Data Security.
Solution Scalability.

A purpose-built Vision AI system that delivers hyper-local sorting guidance, frictionless and energy-efficient by design — using intelligent caching to reduce the AI footprint of every scan.

Architecture

Built to scale. Built to last.

POUBELLE.AI runs on AWS, the world's leading cloud platform — ensuring bank-level security, 99.9% uptime, and the capacity to scale nationally without slowing down.

API Integration

The POUBELLE.AI API connects to existing fleet management systems, operations platforms, and partner dashboards — no rip-and-replace required.

Avg. response time

from photo tap to bin answer

< 2s

Expected recognition accuracy

based on smartphone-camera Vision AI benchmarks

>90%

1

Local rules coverage

local rules alignment for covered areas

100%

Expected sorting guidance accuracy

based on real-world multi-environment studies

>92%

2

Languages supported

English and Spanish at launch

EN / ES

Deployment method

QR: Quick Response code · NFC: Near Field Communication

using existing bins, no heavy investment and no maintenance

QR / NFC

Sources

1 Recognition accuracy: DeepWaste mobile app, ResNet-50 on consumer smartphone photos, 88–93% precision (arxiv.org/abs/2101.05960); WasteNet edge-optimized model, 97% on TrashNet dataset (arxiv.org/pdf/2006.05873).

2 Sorting guidance accuracy: CNN waste classification across four real-world environments, ACM 2024 (dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3759023.3759127); EfficientNetV2-S benchmark, Nature Scientific Reports 2025 (nature.com/articles/s41598-025-08461-w).

Vision AI Layer

One photo.
Instant classification.

POUBELLE.AI's Vision AI processes a single smartphone image against a continuously updated database of local detailed rules. The result is a precise, actionable answer — not a generic guess.

Material Recognition

Identifies plastics, glass, paper, metal, organics, and hazardous materials from a single smartphone photo.

Contamination Scoring

Generates a contamination rate for each load, identifying the specific items driving rejection risk.

Sub-2-Second Response

Optimized inference pipeline returns a structured result — bin assignment, preparation steps, and context — in under 2 seconds.

Multi-Language Output

Delivers guidance in the user's preferred language. No translation friction at the moment of sorting.

POUBELLE.AI contamination detection and audit interface

Carbon Intelligence

Yes, AI has a footprint.
Missorting has a much bigger one.

A single POUBELLE.AI scan emits roughly 0.2 to 1 gram of CO₂ — lightweight image recognition. Recycling one aluminum can instead of landfilling it saves 98.7 grams. One correct sort can offset its own carbon cost — 100 times over.

One POUBELLE.AI scan

Lightweight image recognition. Optimized for mobile, further reduced by response caching.

~0.2–1g

CO₂ per scan 1

One correct sort can offset its own carbon cost — 100 times over.

See data
Item If sorted correctly CO₂ saved Scans offset
Aluminum can Recycled saves 98.7g CO₂2 100–500×
Plastic bottle (500ml) Recycled saves ~50g CO₂3 50–250×
Apple core (40g) Composted, not landfilled saves ~280g CO₂e4 280–1,400×

Response Caching

Common items answered from memory, not recomputed.

Once POUBELLE.AI's Vision AI has classified an item — a yogurt cup, a pizza box, a cardboard sleeve — that answer is cached. The next person who scans the same item gets an instant response pulled from memory, not a new AI inference cycle. This is how the ∼0.2–1g per scan figure holds even as usage scales.

Sources

1 AI inference energy use: Hao et al., 2024; lightweight mobile model quantization reduces resource use by up to 75% (arXiv).

2 Aluminum Association / Sphera, Life Cycle Assessment of North American Aluminum Cans, 2021 (aluminum.org).

3 Thunder Said Energy, CO₂ savings from PET bottle recycling, 500ml LCA, 2024 (thundersaidenergy.com).

4 EPA, "Quantifying Methane Emissions from Landfilled Food Waste," 2023 (epa.gov); Scientific Reports 2023, composting emissions study (nature.com/srep).

Impact Calculator

Estimate your environmental impact

See how much CO₂ you could prevent and how many additional tons you could divert with AI-powered sorting guidance.

Your Current Situation

Your Impact with POUBELLE.AI

Additional Tons Diverted Annually

2,055 tons/year

CO₂-Equivalent Saved Annually

2,844 tons CO₂e/year

Carbon Return on Investment

156:1

For every 1g of CO₂ from AI, you prevent 156g of emissions

New Diversion Rate

35%

Improvement

+10%

AI Carbon Cost

18 tons

Net Benefit

2,826 tons

That's Equivalent To:

🚗 Taking 615 cars off the road for a year
🏠 Powering 348 homes for a year
🌳 Planting 46,700 trees

Carbon Savings Breakdown by Material

🍎 Organics (Food Waste) 1,943 tons CO₂e saved

493 additional tons composted instead of landfilled (prevents methane emissions)

🥫 Aluminum 609 tons CO₂e saved

41 additional tons recycled (95% energy savings vs. virgin production)

♻️ Plastics (PET/HDPE) 292 tons CO₂e saved

247 additional tons recycled (70% energy savings vs. virgin production)

🤖 AI Carbon Footprint −18 tons CO₂

36,500,000 scans per year × 0.5g CO₂ per scan

Sources: Aluminum: The Aluminum Association / Sphera LCA, 2021.  |  Plastics: Thunder Said Energy, 2024.  |  Organics: EPA "Quantifying Methane Emissions from Landfilled Food Waste," 2023.  |  AI Footprint: Hao et al., 2024.  |  Equivalencies: EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalency Calculator, 2024.

Sorting Rules Engine

The rules vary.
Our answers do too.

Waste sorting rules are hyperlocal and evolve. POUBELLE.AI maintains a continuously synchronized database of what the Material Recovery Facilities (MRF) actually accept.

City Item POUBELLE.AI Answer How / Why
Boulder, CO Greasy pizza boxes Split: grease → landfill, clean cardboard → recycling Tear the box apart — greasy sections landfill, unsoiled sections recycled as cardboard
Denver, CO Greasy pizza boxes If soaked through both sides: trash or home/garden composting Grease saturating both sides makes cardboard non-recyclable — trash it or compost at home
Boulder, CO Black plastic containers Curbside Recycling Boulder accepts black plastic containers in curbside recycling
San Francisco, CA Black plastic containers Landfill Same optical sorting limitation

Roadmap

Immediate Public Utility

Live — August 2026

The core web-app experience designed for zero-friction engagement at the physical bin.

  • QR / NFC entry — no app, no login, no friction
  • Vision AI: one photo → bin answer in under 2 seconds
  • Multi-language support (English and Spanish at launch)
  • Multi-material breakdown and preparation instructions
  • Response caching for a low carbon footprint per scan
  • Verified Source of Truth citation framework

Enterprise Operational Layer

Live — August 2026

The backend engines that prove value to municipalities, partners, and haulers.

  • Fleet Ingestion APIs for hopper cameras and image uploads
  • AI contamination detection with digital audit reports
  • Geospatial event logging: GPS, timestamp, and street address
  • Stakeholder dashboards for haulers, partners, and municipalities
  • EPR compliance reporting and behavioral trend analytics

Deep Retention & Gamification

Phase 2 — Post-launch

Transitioning casual scanners into recurring, brand-loyal users.

  • Native user profiles with Green Points rewards system
  • Achievement badges and educational quizzes
  • Personal impact dashboard: your sorting history and outcomes
  • Localized push notifications for rule updates
  • Calendar reminders for local waste pickup schedules
  • Hyper-local facility-level rules and map guidance

Universal Native Ecosystem

Phase 3 — The full ecosystem

The scale phase where POUBELLE.AI becomes the ambient intelligence for circularity.

  • Full iOS and Android native apps with advanced computer vision
  • Voice integration: Siri, Alexa, and Hey Meta
  • Automated weekly ingestion of changing regional policies
  • Smart Substitution AI recommending eco-alternatives
  • Circular Market Engine: donate, repurpose, and divert
  • Enterprise subscription tiers and partner account management

The Development Team

World-class engineering,
by design.

We are proud to be developed & maintained by Zeb, a global leader in AI-powered transformation and an AWS Premier Tier Partner.

With a team of over 1,500 technologists and a 2024 AWS Partner of the Year distinction, Zeb provides the high-velocity engineering and advanced AI expertise required to make POUBELLE.AI a world-class sorting tool. You can learn more about their digital transformation journey at zeb.co.

Team size

1,500+

technologists worldwide

AWS status

Premier

Tier Partner

Recognition

2024

AWS Partner of the Year

Platform

AWS

99.9% uptime, bank-level security