DeepWaste has partnered with Trash for Peace, a leading non-profit organization specializing in waste disposal, to crowdsource waste images from informal waste workers - informal waste workers are individuals who make an income by picking bottles and cans from the road and make between $20 to $50 per month. Their work is crucial to reducing the environmental impact of waste on our climate.

Through a grant funded by the US Department of Environmental Quality, we have around 20 informal waste workers in Portland, Oregon who through this initiative have doubled their hourly income. Through this collaboration, we are collecting images for the DeepWaste 10,000 Image Challenge to improve DeepWaste AI models.