Trustworthy AI for Everyday Challenges: The Case of Waste Collection

The Problem with Manual Planning

In many cities, waste collection is still planned manually or using basic rule-based tools. This often leads to inefficient operations, overlapping routes, under- or over-serviced areas, and unnecessary emissions.

Smarter, Adaptive, and Transparent Solutions

In TUPLES, we’re developing AI systems for waste services that can:

• Integrate real-time data on container fill levels, traffic patterns, vehicle availability, and weather conditions;
• Automatically compute and update optimal waste collection plans;
• Respect contextual constraints like quiet hours, no-access zones, or priority collection times;
• Most importantly, explain the rationale behind each decision to human users — in natural, understandable language.

From Lab to Street: Why This Matters

By highlighting our waste collection use case in a way that the public can easily relate to, the article helps bridge the gap between cutting-edge AI research and real-world impact.

This aligns with one of TUPLES’ core missions: to develop explainable, robust, and trustworthy AI that supports decision-making across critical sectors — and to ensure that the value of AI is understood as well as experienced.

Read the full article here.