Kiril Gantchev
📅 July 7 - August 11, 2025
📍 Heathrow Compass Centre, London
🤝 Executed in Partnership With Heathrow, Grundon, PEL, and Ameru
Executive Summary
Before Ameru Smart Bin, Heathrow's Compass Centre faced a challenge common in high-traffic food service environments. Their traditional waste sorting system resulted in 80% contamination of recyclables and 20% of valuable materials being incorrectly disposed of as general waste, leading to unnecessary WtE costs and missed sustainability goals.
🎯 The Challenge
Heathrow Airport's Compass Centre restaurant faced several critical waste management challenges typical of busy food service operations:
- High Contamination Rates: 80% of materials in recycling bins were contaminated with non-recyclable items like tissues, coffee cups, and food containers
- Value Leakage: 20% of valuable recyclables (PET bottles, reusable cups) were incorrectly disposed of in general waste, incurring unnecessary WtE costs
- User Confusion: Staff struggled to make correct sorting decisions in fast-paced environments
- Limited Visibility: No data on what specific materials were being disposed of, making it impossible to identify reduction opportunities
- Sustainability Goals: Difficulty meeting ambitious environmental targets with traditional sorting methods
💡 The Solution
Ameru's AI-powered Smart Bin was deployed at the Compass Centre to automatically sort waste using computer vision, object recognition, and robotics. The system was configured to sort materials into four streams:
- 📄 Paper and Card
- 🍾 PET Bottles
- ♻️ Dry Mixed Recycling
- 🗑️ General Waste
How It Works
- Computer Vision: Machine learning algorithms classify materials with high accuracy
- Automatic Sorting: Robotics direct items to the correct internal compartment
- Data Capture: Every item is logged, providing detailed waste composition analytics
- User-Friendly: Simply place item on receptacle, the bin does the rest
🔑 Key Features
🤖 AI-Powered Recognition
Computer vision identifies every individual item in real-time, automatically sorting waste into the correct stream.
📊 Waste Analytics Dashboard
Comprehensive dashboard tracks contamination rates, value leakage, and identifies materials for elimination.
🎯 4-Stream Sorting
Custom configured in the following streams: Paper & Card, Plastic Bottles, Dry Mixed Recycling, and General Waste. All automatically separated.
⚡ Quick Deployment
Fully operational within days, with continuous learning through supervised AI training.
🔧 Smart Maintenance
Automated service notifications and AI-based stuck waste detection prevent downtime.
✅ Zero User Burden
Staff and passengers simply drop items—the AI handles all sorting decisions.
📊 Results: Before & After
Before Ameru (Traditional Bins)
| Stream | Weight (g) | % | 1t (€) | 10t (€) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 📄 Paper/Card | 0 | 0.00% | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| 🍾 PET bottles | 0 | 0.0% | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| ♻️ DMR (clean) | 73 | 7.2% | -4.95 | -49.50 |
| ⚠️ DMR contamination | 289 | 28.3% | -42.98 | -429.79 |
| 🗑️ GW accepted | 529 | 51.9% | -78.67 | -786.71 |
| 💔 GW value loss | 129 | 12.6% | -19.18 | -191.84 |
| Total | 1020 | 100.0% | -145.78 | -1457.80 |
After Ameru (Smart Bin)
| Stream | Weight (g) | % | 1t (€) | 10t (€) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 📄 Paper/Card | 56 | 5.0% | 3.38 | 33.80 |
| 🍾 PET bottles | 414 | 36.9% | 25.52 | 255.19 |
| ♻️ DMR (clean) | 102.4 | 9.1% | -6.31 | -63.12 |
| ⚠️ DMR contamination | 25.6 | 2.3% | -3.46 | -34.61 |
| 🗑️ GW accepted | 500 | 44.6% | -67.60 | -675.98 |
| 💔 GW value loss | 24 | 2.1% | -3.24 | -32.45 |
| Total | 1122 | 100.0% | -51.71 | -517.10 |
Before Ameru Financial Waste Costs
After Ameru Financial Impact
Tangible Results
The User Experience
User Satisfaction Metrics
- 70% found it "Very Easy" from first use
- 90% said it made recycling more effective
- 80% prefer automatic sorting over education-only approaches
Staff described the Ameru Smart Bin as:
User Testimonials
"LOVED the bin, great way to make recycling fun and interactive as well as ensuring the waste gets properly recycled. Would be great to have some passenger-facing bins as well in the terminals."
— Heathrow Compass Centre Staff Member A
"I was really impressed with the bin the first time I used it and went home telling my family about how impressed I was with it and how quick it was."
— Heathrow Compass Centre Staff Member B
— Heathrow Compass Centre Staff Member C
Material Processing Rates
Understanding the financial impact: revenue (rebates) vs. costs
| Stream | Rate (€/ton) |
|---|---|
| 📄 Paper (standalone) | €77.80 |
| 📦 Card (standalone) | €57.63 |
| 📦 Paper/Card (blended) | €67.72 |
| 🍾 PET Bottles | €69.16 |
| ♻️ DMR (clean) | €-69.16 |
| 🗑️ General Waste | €-151.69 |
Note: Positive values represent revenue (rebates), negative values represent costs. Ameru Smart Bin combines paper and cardboard into a single stream using the blended rate.
Key Takeaways
- Proven Impact: 75% reduction in contamination and 77% reduction in value leakage within 5 weeks
- Financial Benefits: €94.07 cost savings per ton through improved sorting and material recovery
- User Acceptance: 90% of users found the system made recycling more effective
- Data-Driven Insights: Computer vision captures every item, enabling precise waste composition analysis
- Scalability: Staff feedback strongly supports wider deployment across terminals
- Continuous Improvement: AI system learns and adapts through supervised learning
- Recycling Performance: 100% clean PET capture and 100% clean paper/card separation