New Melbourne-made technology is using artificial intelligence to clean up Australia’s waste problem.
CleanBins is an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered waste monitoring solution developed by Melbourne company Alliance Software.
Installed in waste collection vehicles, CleanBins uses computer vision to identify and track waste contamination at the household level – providing councils with population-wide, high-quality data to better manage their waste streams.
For decades, Alliance Software was best known as a professional software consultancy. But a strategic pivot toward product development opened the door to new opportunities – including the waste industry.
The idea for CleanBins emerged from a deceptively simple question: Can AI and computer vision be used to analyse the contents of a garbage truck in real time?
Alliance’s research confirmed it could – and revealed a significant market gap in the process.
As Alex Green, Chief Executive Officer of Alliance Software, explains, “Our first exposure to the challenges came when we engaged in some consulting projects with local councils. We found out just how poor their access to data was.
“Essentially, they were limited to highly manual data gathering exercises – bin tagging, manual waste audits and driver-driven analysis. The data they had was high cost to gather and really didn’t give them value at a population level.
“Without data, it’s nearly impossible to implement targeted, effective waste management strategies.”
How CleanBins works
At its core, CleanBins is a combination of custom hardware and artificial intelligence designed to give councils unprecedented visibility into their waste streams.
Hardware installed in truck cabs includes cameras and a small server. As bins are tipped into the hopper, images of their contents are captured automatically and a purpose-built AI model analyses the images, classifying materials and flagging contaminants.
The result is a continuous, high-resolution dataset on waste contamination – covering every bin, every collection.
Alex says that unlike traditional waste audits, which might occur once every few years, CleanBins provides an ongoing stream of data from every collection cycle.
“To be able to make a change in the waste industry, councils need data,” he says.
“Instead of a single, infrequent snapshot, CleanBins offers a detailed picture of contamination every fortnight – or however often bins are collected.”
CleanBins doesn’t just collect data – it turns it into actionable insights. Councils can easily identify contamination hotspots by suburb or route, repeat offenders (sometimes called “gross contaminators”), and trends over time to assess the impact of education or enforcement efforts.
Alex says the power of CleanBins lies in what councils can do with the data it provides.
“Feedback from the waste educators we’ve worked with says that 90 per cent of contamination comes from 10 per cent of households,” says Alex.
“CleanBins helps councils pinpoint those individuals so they can take appropriate action – whether it’s targeted education, follow-up inspections, or even removing a bin.
“The key is to take the tens of thousands of collections across a council each fortnight and distill that down to the dozens that a council really care about – the ones where intervention at a specific level is going to have the greatest impact.”
This is where AI shines – reducing what would take hundreds of hours of human effort down to a couple of hours looking at high quality data.
So far, CleanBins has been deployed by six councils across Australia, with early results showing strong promise.
Alex says councils are using the data to comply with upcoming regulations, improve recycling rates, and reduce contamination in kerbside collections – particularly for food organics and garden organics (FOGO).
He emphasises that the technology behind CleanBins isn’t speculative or bleeding edge. “We’re working with road-tested AI – technologies that have been around for more than a decade. We want to deliver reliable, real-world results.”
The circular economy path
While compliance with new regulations is a short-term driver, Alliance Software sees CleanBins as a long-term tool for systemic change.
“This isn’t a short-term fix,” says Alex. “CleanBins allows councils to continuously monitor and improve their waste streams. The ultimate goal is a near-zero contamination rate, higher recycling rates, and meaningful landfill diversion.”
With rising public awareness and government focus on sustainability, Alex believes Australia is at a turning point.
“This is a very good moment for this to come up,” he says. “Australia has the capacity and the expertise. What we need now is ambition and leadership to make our waste streams truly circular.”
For more information, visit:
www.cleanbins.com.au
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