Bower, a Stockholm, Sweden-based mobile app that incentivizes recycling, has been selected for a Google.org Fellowship, in addition to a €1.75M grant through Google.org Impact Challenge – Tech for Social Good.
The Fellowship, beginning in January 2024, will bring together a team of full-time Google employees, with skills ranging from software engineering to UX design, to support the Bower team. Working pro bono for six months, they will help Bower to craft a machine learning-powered waste collection mobile app that rewards users for accurately sorting trash.
The Bower app will leverage machine learning and computer vision to empower users to scan, identify, and better understand their trash – including the type of package, material composition, size and carbon emissions – as well as get rewards for accurately sorting and depositing the waste. The computer vision model behind the app will be open-sourced, for the benefit of the wider recycling ecosystem.
With the backing of Google.org’s funding and technical expertise, Bower aspires to save approximately 500K metric tons of CO2 equivalents annually by nurturing a culture of sustainable behaviors and recycling practices.
Led by Suwar Mert, Co-founder and CEO, Berfin Mert, Co-founder and PMO, and Lucas Nilsson, CTO, Bower is a solution that rewards recycling of all consumer packaging at regular recycling bins. This technology does not only identify trash—it discerns type, material, size, and product specifics, while also calculating the CO2e savings per item. Additionally, the system provides real-time guidance and disposal instructions to local recycling facilities.
With over half a million users, and endorsed by over 200 global and local brands, such as Nestlé, they have helped incentivize the recycling of over 80 million packages since their start in 2019.
FinSMEs
08/11/2023