Bower – a world-unique mobile app incentivizing recycling – was selected for a Google.org Fellowship and a €1.75 million grant through Google.org Impact Challenge – Tech for Social Good.
The Fellowship (starting in January 2024) will bring together a team of full-time Google employees with skills ranging from software engineering to UX design to support the Bower team. Working pro bono for six months, they will help Bower to craft a machine learning-powered waste collection mobile app that rewards users for accurately sorting trash.
Bower’s app will utilize machine learning and computer vision to empower users to scan, identify, and better understand their trash, including the type of package, material composition, size, and carbon emissions, and get rewards for accurately sorting and depositing the waste. The app’s computer vision model will be open-sourced to benefit the wider recycling ecosystem.
Not only is the production of single-use packaging resource-intensive, but only 49% of municipal waste in the EU is properly recycled, culminating in an excess of mismanaged waste. By encouraging and incentivizing public participation in recycling through a machine learning-powered waste collection mobile app, the company aims to reduce the amount of waste turning into litter.
Through the backing of Google.org’s funding and technical expertise, Bower aspires to save approximately 500K metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents annually by nurturing a culture of sustainable behaviors and recycling practices.
KEY QUOTES:
“Receiving this Fellowship and funding from Google.org will catalyze Bower’s work towards creating a trash-free tomorrow. This recognition fuels our dedication towards creating groundbreaking waste sorting solutions. Now, with added expertise from some of the industry’s brightest minds, we’re better positioned to advance circularity at this critical juncture.”
– Suwar Mert, Co-founder and CEO at Bower
“At Google we believe AI can have a transformative impact on our ability to tackle some of the most pressing issues we face, including climate and environmental challenges. Our goal is to bring the best of our resources to help catalyse and develop impactful, tech enabled solutions and that is why we are delighted to be supporting Bower. Bower will be leveraging Google’s technical expertise and funding to build an AI-solution that will make recycling radically more efficient, and in doing so, help enable a more sustainable future for everyone.”
– Rowan Barnett, Head of Google.org Europe, Middle East and Africa
