City celebrates Earth Day with launch of innovative recycling education partnership

April 22, 2022

On Earth Day, April 22, the City of Fort St. John is excited to announce the start of a partnership with Canadian-based Clean-Tech Company Prairie Robotics.

We have previously seen significant improvements in recycling collection through manual cart audits. By partnering with Prairie Robotics and using the firm’s proprietary hardware and software platform, these audits are now performed automatically across the entire city with education tailored to each household.

“We know that most residents try their best to recycle properly, but sometimes we all need some help to remind us – that’s why this partnership with Prairie Robotics is so important. By reducing contamination, we can ensure the safety of those sorting our materials and that all recycled materials can have a long life cycle with multiple uses,” stated Jeremy Garner, Director of Public Works and Utilities for the City of Fort St. John.

“We’ve made tremendous strides over the past year in harnessing our proprietary computer vision technology to understand how we can identify contaminants as the recycling bin is being emptied, and help cities educate households on the mistakes they’re making,” said Sam Dietrich, Co-Founder & CEO of Prairie Robotics. “Our experience has shown that many of the mistakes people make in adding contaminants to their recycling are simply due to a lack of education. By using our targeted education platform, we can significantly reduce the recycling processing costs and the environmental impacts of contaminants.”

When the Prairie Robotics system finds contamination, a postcard showing the contamination is produced and reviewed by City staff before being sent to the resident as an educational reminder.

Example postcard:

Residents are encouraged to visit the City of Fort St. John’s website at www.fortstjohn.ca/garbage-recycling to learn more about what goes where and how to ensure they’re sorting their recycling correctly.

To learn more about Prairie Robotics, visit www.prairierobotics.com.

-30-

Media Inquiries