Zabble upgrades Mobile Tagging to help with SB 1383 compliance

Zabble Inc., a Walnut Creek, California-based provider of artificial intelligence- (AI-) powered zero waste technology solutions to businesses and cities, has updated its mobile tagging platform, which is tailored to meet the specific needs of jurisdictions implementing SB 1383 across California.

The solution empowers waste and recycling managers conducting lid flips and site visits to save time and resources on route planning, cover more ground in the field and gain visibility and insights into program effectiveness with compliance records in one place and ready to submit to regulating agencies.

The city of Berkeley and the Castro Valley Sanitary District, California, are among the first jurisdictions to adopt upgraded platform. 

“Waste management and measurement is a critical challenge that demands innovative solutions. With Zabble’s AI-powered technology, we’re partnering to uncover efficiencies with lid flips, unlock valuable time and resources and gain granular contamination insights to improve our programs,” Berkeley Recycling Program Manager Julia Heath says. “This enables us to channel more of our efforts toward reducing our environmental footprint and building a sustainable future for our city and county.”

A recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) small business award helped Zabble interview more than 40 California jurisdictions, haulers and consultants to understand the need to efficiently plan, conduct and document route reviews and site visits to comply with the state legislation.

“Small businesses funded through the EPA’s Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Program provide innovative approaches to address EPA’s mission of protecting human health and the environment,” EPA Small Business Innovation Research Program Manager April Richards. “Waste quantification and categorization with Zabble helps address the need for technologies that can improve the U.S. recycling system.”

With a guided account upload process featuring automatic address geocoding, waste managers can reduce route review planning time to under three hours—a process that historically takes weeks to complete.

Field teams then can access an interactive map on their mobile app with their accounts, showing the closest bin to their physical location as they move across their route. They can automatically capture bin fullness levels and tag contamination items using Zabble’s patented computer vision AI—even in areas without internet connectivity—ensuring seamless, cohesive and hassle-free operations. Field teams can complete nearly three times the lid flips as they were able to do before using the platform.

Managers can send real-time email notifications and follow up on tasks for any type of incident or contamination. A web-based dashboard can show real-time, granular and historical analytics detailing contamination types, hotspots and metrics on follow-up actions at the account, street, neighborhood, route and jurisdiction levels. The platform also itemizes all records for jurisdictions to submit their annual reports to organizations, such as CalRecycle’s Electronic Annual Reports (EAR).

“This solution represents more than just streamlined, hassle-free operations; it embodies our commitment to turning AI from a buzzword into a tangible force that drives real progress for jurisdictions in California and beyond,” Zabble CEO and founder Nik Balachandran says. “With the invaluable support from the EPA, we’ve delved deep into the needs of waste and recycling managers. When armed with the right tools and data, this group is unstoppable in creating lasting impact—from reducing contamination systemwide to minimizing costs for taxpayers to lowering emissions for our planet.”