Facial recognition adopted to encourage garbage sorting in Beijing

A facial recognition system is being used to improve household garbage sorting by residents in a community in the Xicheng District in Beijing.

A facial recognition camera on a garbage bin at a community in Beijing's Xicheng District on Thursday, July 11, 2019. [Photo: IC]

Cameras attached to the bins scan the face of the person using them. Once the person is recognized, the bins open. So far 70 percent of the people living in that residential community have signed up to use the facial recognition system. Resident can also scan a card to open the bins, or just press a button.

Residents can get small gifts like daily goods in exchange for sorting their garbage.

Residents disposing of sorted garbage are using bins equipped with facial recognition cameras at a community in Xicheng District in Beijing on Thursday, July 10, 2019. [Photo: IC]

A total of 29 sets of the high-tech bins equipped with facial recognition have been installed at 16 locations in the community. The rollout started in April.

To reduce the need to transport waste, a workshop to process kitchen waste was built on unused land in the community in 2014. The facility can process two tons of kitchen waste every day, accounting for about one-third of the garbage created by the community.

Garbage bins for different categories of waste at a community in Beijing's Xicheng District on Thursday, July 11, 2019. The bins are equipped with facial recognition cameras. [Photo: IC]

The municipal government plans to raise the coverage rate of household waste classification demonstration zones to 60% of the city in 2019, 90% next year. The city is also planning to mandate citizens to sort their garbage, said Sun Xinjun, an official from the city's urban management commission.