We wanted to remedy that.”Īlthough the team did not win, their idea caught the attention of one of the judges, who leads the National University of Singapore (NUS)’s Waste Minimisation and Recycling Taskforce. “Currently, people can check how much water and electricity they are using, but there’s a gap when it comes to waste. “We were partly inspired by apps like Health 365, which make people more conscious about their daily habits,” explained Anthony. The data collected could also help inform waste management policies. Paired with a mobile app, this allows people to see how much rubbish and recyclables they are depositing over time, and receive prompts on ways to reduce their waste generation, such as by reusing or recycling. Each time a resident throws something into the chutes, it would be weighed automatically. Their WasteLess Smart Chute comprised a set of three chutes for general waste and paper and plastic recyclables. “This was a good way to learn something new, too.”įor the hackathon, the team came up with an idea to tackle the issue of household waste. “Since we couldn’t travel and were assigned remote learning, we wanted to do something useful with our time,” Anthony shared. Christopher, and a few others, would join a bit later. The original team included Samuel Yeo, who was then still in National Service, Pradeep Mani Rathnam and Neo Yew Chong. The team first came together in May last year, when COVID-19 overturned their plans to travel before the start of their undergraduate studies.Īnthony Sukotjo rounded up three friends from his secondary school, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), to take part in a hackathon on environmental sustainability organised by Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Their goal? To encourage waste reduction by providing people with data on how much they were throwing away or recycling at home. Along with a group of friends, he was trying to build a smart chute system that could track the amount of rubbish and recyclables deposited by individuals. After all, who goes shopping for a single rubbish chute?Īnd no, Christopher was not renovating his house but conducting an experiment.

Twenty-year-old Christopher Li could partly understand the confusion from the construction contractor at the other end of the line. “Can I order one rubbish chute? Yes, that’s right, just one.” When Covid-19 disrupted their plans, these boys turned their attention elsewhere – to designing and rolling out a smart chute that would tell people how much rubbish and recyclables they were generating.

Smart trash chutes