Shulou(Shulou.com)06/02 Report--

If you have seen Beijing folding by Hao Jingfang, who won the Hugo Award, you will be impressed by the setting of "the third Space" in the novel.

In an urban system that is cyclically folded according to 48 hours, the first space enjoys a full 24 hours, while the second and third spaces share the 24 hours after flipping, except that the third space can only be divided into eight hours from midnight to dawn. These eight hours are spent by tens of millions of workers at the bottom to work, that is, to dispose of the waste generated by one or two spaces, and spend some time after work to eat and entertain, and then enter a 40-hour dormancy.

In the novel, in addition to the problem of class differentiation metaphorized by spatial folding, it also secretly points to the survival dilemma of modern cities, that is, the second set of urban sewage discharge system, which is ignored by most people but is extremely important-municipal waste disposal.

Now that the problem has become "an elephant breaking into the room", the rulers and city dwellers can no longer pretend to be "invisible" and procrastinate.

After the official implementation of the regulations on Municipal solid waste Management in Shanghai on July 1 last year, it marked that garbage classification has entered the "compulsory era" of the whole people. On May 1 this year, Beijing implemented the newly revised Beijing Municipal solid waste Management regulations. Ten days later, after the implementation of the new policy, the first fine of 9000 yuan was issued on a supermarket, and the disciplinary punishment began to be implemented.

During the two sessions this year, deputies have proposed to establish a national unified standard for garbage classification, and to have a basic law for garbage classification, so that the rules and standards of garbage classification are clear and clear, so that the relevant subjects of garbage classification have laws to follow. Even more radical representatives have proposed to legislate at the national level to make garbage classification a legal obligation of residents, and of course require all parts of the country to form a waste classification management system of "whole industry, whole field and whole process".

The urgency of national waste classification legislation should indeed be put on the agenda, but considering that our country has vigorously promoted garbage classification in various key cities many years ago and failed in the end, it is also difficult for hasty legislation to ensure that garbage classification will achieve remarkable results immediately.

Garbage classification is a systematic social project, which involves urban management, treatment technology, system legislation and even lifestyle and other aspects. The change of a single element depends on the cooperation of other elements. Therefore, the problem of garbage classification seems to be a set of equations composed of multiple variables.

We have noticed that with the increase of government investment in urban governance and the intervention of technical forces, the intelligent classification and identification of artificial intelligence technology and the introduction of intelligent sorting technology have been introduced in the garbage classification solutions in the past two years. It has become a new solution for many people to try to solve the problem of garbage classification.

So, what are the difficulties in putting these intelligent schemes of garbage classification into use? And how to play the role of real intelligent classification and sorting? Is intelligent garbage classification the optimal solution to this complex system of equations?

The gap between ideal and reality: the realistic dilemma of garbage classification

Before we examine the practical problems of municipal solid waste classification, we can refer to an idealized model-Japan. In this way, we can not only clearly see the whole process of garbage classification, but also see where we have insurmountable problems in the comparison.

In garbage disposal, different from the professional path chosen by most countries, Japan has chosen a path of universal participation.

The classification, transportation and disposal of daily domestic waste in Japan involve the government, enterprises, the public, community groups and school education participants, and play a different division of labor and cooperation in these three links.

The government is the builder of the garbage classification system. Its functions include the formulation of regulations and policies, the provision of financial budgets and infrastructure, supervision and treatment. The most detailed one lies in the detailed regulations on the classification standard, packaging, collection and transportation time of garbage. At the enforcement level, it can also be carried out in strict accordance with the regulations, and violators will be severely dealt with.

Enterprises are the transporters and disposers of classified waste. Its functions include waste disposal technology research and development, equipment management and operation, environmental awareness, waste transportation and disposal and other roles. In terms of technology research and development, incineration, biodegradation, renewable materials and other technologies all belong to the world's leading level. In garbage disposal, different types of waste are handled by specialized enterprises, such as enterprises specializing in the treatment of cans for recycling, combustible waste for combustion and power generation, organic waste for environmental fertilizer, and enterprises specializing in hazardous waste and large-scale garbage sorting.

Community groups are the hub of the garbage classification system. In Japan, this group, known as the neighborhood self-government association, appeared in the early 1990s, representing the interests of local community residents and exercising duties similar to those of neighborhood committees in our country. In garbage classification, it mainly plays a bottom-up role in representing the interests of residents, carrying out dialogue with the government and enterprises, publicizing and implementing garbage classification policies, and coordinating the cooperative relationship between residents and garbage recovery and disposal enterprises.

The public is the executor and beneficiary of this waste sorting system. The garbage generated at home is basically taken home for disposal, and the garbage generated at home is strictly and carefully sorted according to the standard and put on time, waiting for recycling. National education is the guarantee of the construction of this system. Starting from kindergarten, Japanese children will begin to receive education in garbage sorting and resource recycling.

It is this day-to-day strict and tedious learning process that ensures the good environmental quality of the Japanese, which ultimately promotes the cause of waste separation and recycling in Japan to the extreme.

Obviously, apart from the application of a large number of advanced technologies in the recycling process, Japan's waste sorting system does not use any "intelligent" methods at all, relying only on strict norms and a high degree of public consciousness to ensure the effective operation of the system.

However, as a rising star of the consumer power, China wants to achieve this path of national participation, there are still a variety of practical obstacles.

First, consumer culture is in a low stage. We are now in the stage of expansion of consumerism, encouraging the rapid consumption of consumer goods, encouraging complicated packaging, encouraging comparison and rapid upgrading, at the cost of excessive consumption of resources and a surge in waste production.

Second, the social psychology is not yet mature. On the one hand, it is flocking to new consumer goods and "avoiding" the waste after consumption, and lacks a sense of concern and responsibility for the whereabouts of garbage; on the other hand, it connects garbage classification with "low status" and "dirty". Unable to cultivate a normal "normal mind" of garbage disposal.

Third, the landing details of the garbage classification system are not in place. Municipal departments, recycling enterprises and residents involved in garbage sorting do not trust each other. The former thinks that the garbage sorting of residents is not in place, which increases the difficulty of secondary sorting for the back-end treatment, while the latter thinks that garbage classification is not necessary, because it is often seen that the separated garbage is still mixed and transported in a car, and hard sorting has no effect.

Fourth, garbage classification is inefficient and disorderly. Different from the system implemented by the whole country in Japan, all the subjects in our country only complete their own tasks. Compared with the time-consuming and labor-consuming process of careful sorting, ordinary residents only need to mix the waste into bins to complete the task, some recyclers conduct the first screening of recyclable materials from the dustbins, and garbage removal departments only need to centralize the garbage. Finally, inefficient secondary screening is carried out in the garbage treatment center, and then incineration and landfill are concentrated.

Then, in the face of the practical problems in garbage classification in our country, which problems can be solved by the existing intelligent solutions of garbage classification, we still have to put a question mark first.

Reliable and ineffective: the first experience of intelligent garbage classification

Although AI's machine vision and image recognition technology can already be applied to the scene of garbage sorting, these intelligent applications would not have appeared in our daily life if Shanghai had not imposed the "strictest garbage sorting policy in history" last year. After all, this issue does not seem to have a place in our various livelihood issues.

When the strict standard of garbage classification is really in front of each of us, identifying all kinds of objects in life becomes the first challenge that people face. What people naturally think of is what methods can quickly identify domestic waste and help us classify it effectively.

In the process of garbage identification, the first and easiest thing to implement is garbage classification and identification APP. Before the Shanghai New deal, the three BAT giants took the lead in launching all kinds of classified Mini Program on their respective platforms, including WeChat Mini Programs's "garbage inspection war", Baidu's "Baidu AI garbage sorting" and Alipay's "garbage sorting Guide".

Among them, photo recognition, AR recognition and VR classification games can provide fresh and interesting experiences and practical help to users who have just learned garbage classification. However, these applications still play the role of a garbage classification manual, and the recognition of many objects can only be limited to the general classification of large objects, but can not achieve the separation of different parts of the same object.

This kind of classification and recognition program needs to combine more knowledge graph and object detail identification technology to do a good job in the details of garbage classification in order to better meet the more and more stringent classification requirements in the future.

Intelligent garbage sorting device is a more complex solution. Entering this field are mainly some entrepreneurial environmental protection technology companies, the main solution is through the transformation of the traditional classification of garbage bins, adding vision, sensors and other intelligent identification system to identify the garbage that people throw.

For example, Oscar, a foreign AI garbage sorting system, can identify objects in people's hands through AI cameras and displays, and tell you how to put them correctly.

A large number of domestic garbage recovery devices almost adopt the same similar ideas, but these devices have to face a lot of practical problems, such as residents' garbage is generally mixed, and the efficiency of on-site separation and release is very low. Early trial may be possible, but the time cost for long-term persistence is too high. Similarly, the mixed garbage is prone to cross-contamination, resulting in the AI system can not be properly identified, which may eventually lead to system failure and increase the cost of manual sorting.

According to the statistics of a domestic organization, China has implemented nearly thousands of "intelligent waste classification" programs, large and small, since 2010, and most of the projects have come to a dead end. the fundamental reason is that the cost of equipment research and development, operation and maintenance is high, and classified storage and transportation also cost a lot of cost. In the end, most of these projects come to an end in the contradiction of inadequate front-end classification and mid-and back-end garbage removal.

Intelligent garbage sorting equipment may be one of the more effective AI solutions. This kind of equipment is more arranged in the terminal link of garbage disposal, and the robot system is used for efficient sorting of recyclable materials and other garbage.

According to this idea, many feasible sorting equipment have been put into use at home and abroad. For example, the Max-AI system, produced by an American optical classification equipment manufacturer, uses multi-layer neural networks and visual systems to view and identify objects in a manner similar to that of people. However, the rapid sorting of all kinds of recyclable materials can be completed faster than that of human beings.

Then there is ZRR, a construction waste sorting robot launched by the Finnish company ZenRobotics, which needs only two robots and four robotic arms, works 24 hours a day, and can handle 2000 tons of construction waste, equivalent to the workload of 48 workers. Now some domestic research institutions and enterprises are also actively developing this kind of intelligent sorting robot.

We know that in the terminal link of garbage disposal, the working environment is poor, the work is monotonous and repetitive and intensive, and this kind of sorting robot will be the best way to solve the sorting of recyclable resources and the classification of goods. However, in order to improve the efficiency of the final garbage sorting, the coarse particle classification of the early garbage source still needs to be guaranteed, at least to avoid the pollution of food waste to recyclable waste.

At present, the intelligent garbage classification system is still in the auxiliary link of the whole garbage disposal system, and there are still many scene restrictions and cost dilemmas in its application and promotion. If the intelligent garbage system is to play a role, it is fundamentally inseparable from the overall optimization and improvement of the whole system. Compared with those solutions that only solve local problems or dabble in them, we should try to play a better role of intelligent garbage classification in the garbage classification system from a systematic point of view.

Introducing system engineering to find the optimal solution for intelligent classification

I saw a "pure technology flow" solution in an article. The idea is to use a "high-tech" garbage collection device without human sorting. As long as any garbage is thrown into it, it can be automatically sorted, recycled and reused internally, thus solving the pressure, moral burden and efficient recycling problems of individual residents.

But the idea is either too naive about the power of technology or too ignorant of the truth of life. The sorting device can be easily destroyed by a bag of garbage mixed with bottles, cans, paper, kitchen waste and hazardous materials.

Therefore, in the fundamental solution of garbage classification in China, we still think that the root of this problem is still a problem of system optimization, rather than a problem of technical scheme. No matter how smart the solution must be, as shown in the Japanese waste sorting system above, all responsible parties have to fulfill their corresponding responsibilities.

It is understood that China produces nearly 1 billion tons of garbage every year, including 500 million tons of construction waste and 400 million tons of domestic waste. Among the domestic waste, there are 100 million tons of food waste. This kind of organic waste wrapped with the three "toxins" of oil, salt and water has become a particularly serious type of garbage in China, that is, the type of "wet garbage" specially emphasized in Shanghai, and has become the main culprit for the growth of bacteria and stench in garbage dumps.

It can be said that if kitchen waste is mixed into the terminal of garbage classification, then the effective waste classification is basically wasted. Therefore, in the front of the classification, the kitchen waste can be effectively separated and disposed of separately to provide protection for the back-end classification.

At the front end of garbage classification, whether families, companies, catering and other service institutions, it is more necessary to establish more intelligent garbage classification and recycling applications, through exclusive tagable, traceable garbage bags and reusable garbage bins, do a good job in the classification of kitchen waste and other garbage at the initial source, and put in time-sharing and sub-items according to intelligent applications. And make an appointment for door-to-door recycling of large items, electrical appliances and other items. The corresponding communities and garbage disposal institutions should also do a good job in supporting recycling services through this system to ensure that kitchen waste can be collected uniformly, and other garbage can be time-sharing and classified recycling.

In communities and urban public places, garbage bins and such "intelligent recycling devices" can be phased out, and urban residents and consumers are encouraged to bring their own garbage bags and take daily wastes home for disposal. At the same time, commercial premises and supermarkets are encouraged to abolish traditional garbage bins and set up professional sorting bins to provide residents with recycling channels for wastes such as hazardous electronic equipment.

In addition, strict rewards and punishments will be taken to punish those who litter in public places, and the funds will be used to reward residents and institutions that support home sorting. In the process of waste disposal, let the human itself, the agent, take the initiative.

In the terminal processing link, the processing plant will check the results of the front-end classification according to the identification of marked garbage bags and secondary sorting, and give timely feedback and warning; while on the final assembly line of garbage disposal, more intelligent sorting equipment can be used to replace inefficient manual sorting, and then handed over to downstream specialized companies for fine processing of classified renewable resources.

Conclusion: there are thousands of things, starting from the most difficult.

Generally speaking, articles calling for garbage sorting will end with "from now on, start with me". But in fact, individual changes are all too easy to be dispelled by the power of the whole system. A moment of enthusiasm cannot improve the face of the whole system. As long as a mixed garbage removal vehicle can easily extinguish anyone's enthusiasm for classification.

Garbage classification is always a systematic social project, which must be made up from the aspects of system legislation, staff supervision, strict implementation and citizen participation. And we also see that intelligent solutions can not simply tinker with local links, but should give priority to building a set of systematic intelligent solutions, from the source classification of garbage generation to the most terminal verification and sorting, in order to ensure that the system can operate more effectively and continuously.

Going back to a detail of Beijing folding, the author presupposes a more pessimistic dystopian setting. In eavesdropping on the conversation of people in the first space, the protagonist Lao Dao learned that scientists have long found a super liquid that can effectively degrade garbage, which can efficiently dispose of the waste material they produce. However, in order to consider the survival of tens of millions of third-space residents, this ultimate scheme is not used, but still uses the most primitive method to allow these low-income people to dispose of garbage manually in exchange for daily needs.

Of course, we can understand that this is the author's hidden worry about the high differentiation of social strata and the substitution of technology for human labor. But we can actually think about it the other way around.

In a commodity economy with more and more detailed division of labor and more and more refined life, whether everyone's participation in garbage classification can become an experience to reduce the differentiation of social strata. After all, everyone is equal in front of garbage sorting.

Today, with the accelerated arrival of the intelligent world, we add to ourselves "troubles" such as garbage sorting, which may actually be beneficial to the body and mind and maintain human nature. This may also be the reason why a highly developed society like Japan has changed garbage sorting from a "hassle" to a habit that never gets tired of.

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