Professor Jin Nakazawa of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies has received the FY2025 "Honda Award for Recycling Technology Development."
This award is organized by the Clean Japan Center (CJC) of the Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry, and this year marks its 30th anniversary since its establishment in 1996. It is awarded annually to research papers that have made significant contributions to academic progress and technological development in the field of the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle).
The award-winning research paper is titled "'Gomi-Zero Shonan': A Digital Promotion Infrastructure for Regional Waste Management, Collection, and Reduction Utilizing Fine-Grained Waste Discharge Data." In this study, AI sensors were installed on waste collection vehicles in Fujisawa City and Kamakura City to conduct demonstration experiments for optimizing collection routes and verifying waste discharge status. The AI sensors measure and quantify garbage bags in real-time from rear-camera footage, which is then used for the accumulation and analysis of collection data. Additionally, part of the basic research for this development was conducted with the support of commissioned research (22610) from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) (Principal Investigator: Keio University; Co-Investigator: Reitaku University). The award ceremony and a lecture on the research content were held on October 21, 2025.
Research Paper Title
'Gomi-Zero Shonan': A Digital Promotion Infrastructure for Regional Waste Management, Collection, and Reduction Utilizing Fine-Grained Waste Discharge Data
Jin Nakazawa, Professor, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University
Yin Chen, Associate Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Reitaku University
Comment from Professor Jin Nakazawa
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the local governments and everyone in the laboratory who cooperated in this project.
Source: General Affairs Section, Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) Office