Speaker 1: This is the lasso. It's a home recycling machine that detects, cleans and breaks down recyclable goods. Let's take a first look and see exactly what it can do.
Speaker 1: Recycling is something a lot of us take for granted. We throw stuff into the curb recycling bin, and just hope that it gets taken care of, but that's not always the case. A lot of what we recycle actually ends up going straight to landfill or it's [00:00:30] down cycled into lower quality products. The numbers are pretty bad with the EPA estimating. The us only recycled 8.7% of discarded plastic in 2018. The lasso is a closed loop system. So that means the used materials. It processes can get recycled into a new, similar product. The idea is that you put the lasso in your kitchen or even your garage, just like any other appliance and by cleaning and separating things like glass and plastic, it helps remove [00:01:00] contaminants, which means hopefully it actually ends up getting recycled properly. So to test it out, I actually brought some trash from home, cuz that's what I do. I'm gonna go through a process and put a couple cans in, you know, maybe even some glass and see actually what happens and the finished product. I start by punching a larger hole in the can. Then I open up the compartment door and put the can in upside down. Now we weren't allowed [00:01:30] to film inside the machine because some of the tech is still patent pending, but lasso removes the labels, cleans and dries the items before crushing them. This footage film by the company shows you part of that process.
Speaker 1: And here is the final result.
Speaker 1: Poor old can. It's in pieces. Now, obviously when you actually have this in your home, it's not gonna just fall on the floor [00:02:00] like this. It's gonna be separated into one of S different compartments that will much more easily be able to be recycled by type. We just took the bin out so you could see exactly what was happening. So now let's take a deeper look into what actually happens in the middle of this process between actually putting the can in the machine to coming through, to looking like this. At the very end I met with Phil Sanders CTO at lasso loop. He explains what goes on under the hood and what kind of materials can be recycled with the machine.
Speaker 2: [00:02:30] When we load the material into, into the lasso, um, as Centra array detects the material type. So we're accepting two different types of plastic. It detects three different types, colors of glass and aluminum cans and steel tins. So it does that by using an array of sensors and also, um, cameras for machine vision, um, basically it takes all those inputs and runs down the flow chart to determine what material it is [00:03:00] now, if it also checks for, um, CRV compliance. So your bottle deposit return, and also for contamination, um, that can be, if you've left the cap on the bottom, the machine will ask you to take it out, take the cap off, put it back in. Or if you to a material that we don't accept, it'll be rejected back onto you.
Speaker 1: Lasso can accept a variety of materials at once. We put in a glass bottle, a plastic bottle and an aluminum can one after [00:03:30] the other, it takes about a minute to scan and detect each item, but they wanna make this part faster. So you can just load it up and get on with your day. Once the item is detected, lasso will remove the labels, steam, clean and riot, And finally shred the bottles and cans into the raw materials. The whole process takes about 10 minutes. So [00:04:00] now the process is finished and we can actually see the final results of what went through the machine. Okay. So we'll start with the can first. So it's been cleaned and shreded just like that kind of almost looks like confetti. It's a little sharper, so I won't be throwing that at any weddings, but that's already to go to be taken and recycled. Then there's the glass. I will not be putting that in my hands, but you can see it's been shreded up [00:04:30] into small pieces like so, and these are exactly the glass and the tin that we put in at the top of the machine. And finally,
Speaker 1: This is the plastic bottle. It's actually really kind of cool to see it broken down like that. So as you can see, there's only six slots here, but the final version will actually have one extra slot for the mixed plastics as well. So that's [00:05:00] it just really, as simple as that, this is a proof of concept right now and not ready for prime time, but the company says the finished version will look a lot more sleek, probably a little taller than a standard dishwasher and quieter. The back of the machine was open up for our demo. So you can really hear everything getting crunched and crushed up And you won't be completely independent of your curbside pickup bins [00:05:30] lasso can't take paper or cardboard just yet. The lasso will have to be emptied once your container is full, you'll organize a collection through the app, and then they'll collect that from your home. You don't put it in your regular, the recycling bin, the company estimates you'll need to pick up anywhere from three to eight times a year.
Speaker 3: What comes out of the lasso will a hundred percent be recycled, um, because these are all kept separated at the bottom. We're able to sell them back at a high value to the re manufacturers who will immediately remanufacture [00:06:00] them into another item. So we can guarantee that that water bottle that you're putting in will get recycled again into another water bottle.
Speaker 1: So that's your very first look at the lasso. Now, if you wanna get your hands on one of these machines, the pilot program is kicking off in the San Francisco bay air area in 2023. And the price starts at 3,500 us dollars with general availability sometime in 2024. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go and take my recycling to the curb. Hopefully [00:06:30] get some extra cash for it. See ya.
