Turkish students win first place in Italy with AI-powered waste management project
Eco Team, led by IT teacher Selcuk Yusuf Arslan, includes Yunus Emre Turgut, Enes Ucak, Sudenaz Gunesgor, Zeynep Guldeniz Nisanci, Erhan Silsupur, and Memduh Turk. (Photo via Selcuk Yusuf Arslan's Instagram account)
A team of students from Ataturk Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School in Türkiye has won first place at the Focus Rifiuti Hackathon Edition 2025 in Benevento, Italy.
The Eco Team, formed by students specializing in information technologies, developed an innovative AI-powered waste management system that optimizes garbage collection and reduces fuel consumption.
AI-driven solution to reduce waste collection costs
Observing that garbage trucks empty bins daily regardless of their fill levels, the students devised a smarter alternative. Their project integrates sensor-equipped chips into waste containers to monitor fill levels.
Instead of stopping at every bin, garbage trucks will only collect waste from containers that are at least 50% full, cutting down on fuel costs and saving valuable time.
From classroom idea to international success
The Eco Team comprises 10th-grade students Yunus Emre Turgut and Enes Ucak, 11th-grade students Sudenaz Guneggor, Zeynep Guldeniz Nisanci, and Erhan Silsupur, as well as final-year student Memduh Turk. The project originated from a question posed by their IT teacher, Selcuk Yusuf Arslan, during a lesson on AI and machine learning: “What can we do for the environment?”
With funding from the National Agency under the Ankara Provincial Directorate of National Education’s vocational education accreditation, the students traveled to Italy to present their project.
Arslan revealed the team’s ambitious 10-year roadmap, emphasizing that their initial goal is to collaborate with municipalities to implement their system. In their second year, they aim to develop a more comprehensive software, followed by expanding the project to one million containers by year three. By their 10th year, the students aspire to become the market leader in AI-driven waste management.
