Towards Sustainable Recycling: Advancements in AI-Based Waste Classification

Abstract

[EN] Despite global efforts in the pursuit of sustainable waste management practices, significant gaps for improvement persist, as evidenced by Spain¿s recycling rates lagging below European targets. As part of a larger initiative aiming to build an intelligent and collaborative environment to promote the Circular Economy, this paper investigates the potential of Image Classification in developing an intelligent assistant for waste disposal guidance. Tailored to Spain¿s recycling framework, an analysis of different state-of-the-art Image Classification architecture¿s performance on waste sorting is presented. Additionally, the paper explores aggregation techniques to enhance classification accuracy.This work was partially supported with grant PID2021- 123673OB-C31, TED2021-131295B-C32 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/5011 00011033 and by ERDF A way of making Europe , grant CIPROM/2021/077 from the Conselleria de Innovació, Universitats, Ciencias i Societat Digital Generalitat Valenciana - PROMETEO and project Reciclaje Inteligente y Cooperativo en Toda la Cadena de Valor Orientado a Una Sociedad Sostenible 360º (INNEST/2022/180) from Agencia Valenciana de la Innovación.Chacón-Albero, ODLP.; Campos-Mocholí, M.; Marco-Detchart, C.; Julian, V.; Rincón-Arango, JA.; Botti, V. (2025). Towards Sustainable Recycling: Advancements in AI-Based Waste Classification. Springer Cham. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/21258