Compost, recycle or waste? It’s a dilemma facing millions daily, and one that EvoEco, a Seattle-based technology firm, has set out to solve with the launch of the EvoBin, an interactive smart waste system that solves the challenges of consumer waste sorting.

The EvoBin helps consumers take the anxiety and guesswork out of getting rid of their waste, while empowering organizations to use data and messaging to efficiently manage their business. The first smart bin on the market with the technology to help divert waste from landfill, the EvoBin helps:

• Educate consumers on how to sort their waste
• Reduce manual waste audits and trash sorts
• Analyze current and historical data trends to determine problem locations
• Track progress toward zero or low-waste diversion goals
• Optimize custodial services by providing real-time alerts for bins that are at capacity.

Waste is a $250 billion industry globally and $75 billion domestically, according to a World Bank study. Annually, the U.S. generates 170 million tons of waste to landfill, with 80% that can be diverted to compost and recycling. However, consumers sort less than 35% of their waste into correct waste bins. As a result, high-traffic venues are substantially overspending on waste collection, contamination fines, and additional labor to pre-sort before collection. As strict zero-waste legislation rapidly tightens throughout the U.S., EvoEco’s solution allows commercial property managers and building operators to drive ROI and reach mandated waste goals.

How the EvoBin works

Each bin is equipped with an integrated scale that detects when waste is tossed in. The change in weight triggers a responsive, fully customizable message that slides, scrolls, or pops onto the screen. When users discard their waste, all weights in all bins are recorded and the screens provide immediate feedback. When not in direct use, the digital screens show a cascading stream of waste, with images of items falling into the correct bins. This waste data can be monitored over time (and communicated on-screen) to encourage participation in communal recycling and composting.

Each EvoBin provides:

• Cloud customization. With our Content Management System, customers can remotely customize the EvoBins’ displays with ease, so that your message and user experience is perfectly tailored to fit any audience or venue.
• User engagement. Featuring an interactive system, the EvoBin actively engages consumers, encouraging better waste disposal habits and facilitating information retention.
• Waste diversion. The EvoBin utilizes crisp, well-designed visuals and an engaging user response system to help consumers accurately sort their waste -- proven through research to divert waste from landfills, and create more environmentally conscious consumers.
• Real-time analytics. EvoEco’s technology captures data on how much waste is being deposited into each bin, providing insight into consumer disposal habits, the impact of waste diversion efforts, traffic differentials across different locations and more.

“Every day, consumers are faced with the dilemma: which is the right bin to toss my cardboard, bottle, or wrapper. And each day, nearly 2/3 of the population gets that answer wrong, leading to contamination of our landfills and millions of dollars spent in waste management fees and fines for commercial property managers and building operators,” said William Zhou, founder and CEO of EvoEco. “Our technology makes it easier for consumers to know for sure which bin to toss their waste, improving our environment and saving operators millions of dollars along the way.”

“We have tried a number of programs to encourage our tenants and visitors to sort their waste appropriately, since this not only supports our environment but can also provide significant savings on our waste disposal costs. However, our diversion rates were still below our target average,” said Nicole Dubee, property manager for Columbia Property Trust at 221 Main Street in San Francisco. “We are finding that, with its unique, interactive digital screen, the EvoBins engage people in a way that causes them to stop, consider and sort items correctly. Increasing our diversion rates should enable us to not only make up the cost of the bins in less than three months but also realize as much as a 40% savings year-over-year on our waste bill.”

About EvoEco

Founded in 2015, EvoEco creates smart-building technology solutions. The company’s flagship product, the EvoBin, provides smart waste bins in high-traffic venues to help educate consumers about how to sort their waste. Equipped with microcomputers, visual displays, clo­ud functionality, scale sensors, the EvoBin offers high-traffic venues an end-to-end auto-sorting waste bin solution without the complex mechanical process, instead through object recognition and consumer engagement and education.

About Columbia Property Trust

Columbia Property Trust (NYSE: CXP) owns and operates Class-A office buildings concentrated in high-barrier-to-entry, gateway markets. Its portfolio includes 19 operating properties containing over nine million square feet, primarily located in New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Columbia carries an investment-grade rating from both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. For more information, please visitwww.columbia.reit.