ASK.POUBELLE.AI, sorting and educational application currently in development, provides precise instructions to visitors, residents and students on how to sort, reuse, or donate items using official, local, and current rules.Scan, or tap the stickers on existing bins or use the Mobile App, and you will meet Sorty, our mascot!Every time you will use the app to learn on sorting, you will play a vital role in protecting our Planet and its climate.
"In 1884, my ancestor Eugène Poubelle changed Paris forever by introducing the first standardized waste bins, containers that still carry our name today. Growing up with this name, I’ve always felt a personal responsibility to continue his mission.Eugène gave the world the bins to hold our waste.
Today, having bins is no longer enough, we need the guidance to use them correctly.POUBELLE.AI brings my family’s legacy into the 21st century, ensuring every item is sorted correctly to protect our planet and its climate for the long term."
Guillaume Poubelle
Founder & CEO of POUBELLE.AI
making a difference
Our Vision
Zero Confusion: Confidence at every bin.Nature Protection: Saving landscapes and rivers from the Cities to the Rockies.Trash as a Resource: Waste as a beginning, not an end.
Our Mission
Clarity: Eliminating doubt at the source by providing an official and real-time source of truth.Transparency: Restoring trust in recycling by sharing data and results.Optimization: Ensuring what you sort actually gets recycled.
Our Impact
The People: Moving the feeling from "I hope this is right " to "I know, and this matters."The Process: High-quality sorting today creates raw quality materials for tomorrow.The Planet: Preserving the local ecosystems we love.
Boulder, Colorado: a global zero-waste leader
The Community
Boulder is home to a passionate outdoor community that deeply cares for its environment.The Record
Boulder's dedication to the environment led the city to become a world pioneer in waste policy.
It was one of the first cities to pass a Universal Zero Waste Ordinance, requiring recycling and composting for all.The Impact
By saving and reusing 53% of our waste, we significantly outperform the United States average of 32%.
The Infrastructure
This success is built on Boulder's partnerships with world-class organizations: A1 Organics, Eco-Cycle® and Western Disposal Services.The Remaining Challenge
Even when people try their best, a single piece of trash can spoil an entire batch of recycling.The Opportunity
According to Eco-Cycle®, by sorting better,
we can save 2/3 of the waste that currently ends up in landfills.
Annual Waste Diversion by Stream
Landfill
55%
Recycling
24%
Composting
19%
150,000 Tons Per Year
That is the weight of the recyclable materials currently buried in Boulder local landfills.
By better sorting, we have the power to save tons of resources from becoming waste.
(Source: Eco-Cycle®)
25% Sorting Error Rate
1 in 4 items placed in recycling bins doesn’t belong there. "Wish-cycling" - or hoping something is recyclable - mixes trash with recyclables, making entire batches impossible to process.
Boulder’s heart is in the right place.
Let's reclaim those 150,000 tons together and show the world
what a Zero-Waste City looks like.
1
Your hopper-mounted camera
takes a picture
2
POUBELLE.AI scans it and
calculates contamination rate
3
Your office accesses the fleet contamination reports real time
The In-Truck AI service for fleets
By linking your hopper-mounted camera to POUBELLE.AI, you transform standard collection trucks into intelligent auditing hubs for automated enforcement and revenue recovery from repeat offenders.
Audit from the Cabin: Stop the manual "lid-flip" audits! Triggered either by a driver request or randomly by the system, the AI scans the bin's contents, identifies contaminants, and generates a report.
Geospatial Event Logging: Every audit is instantly tagged with GPS coordinates, a timestamp, and the specific residential or commercial address.
Digital Collection Summaries: The system generates a "Contamination Report", including high-resolution image captures and a list of detected contaminants for proof of offense.
1
Educate your customers at their doorstep
2
Inform your customers about easy access to your MRF sorting rules
3
Support your reimbursement request for Educational & Outreach efforts with an annual report
The Educational & Outreach annual report for EPR
Turn outreach expenses into Return On Investment (ROI). Use tailored, data-backed annual reports to prove your waste diversion impact and justify reimbursements from your Producer Responsibility Operator (PRO).
Dress up your bins with a fun, custom-logo sticker! The QR code gives residents free access to POUBELLE.AI digital sorting app to make recycling and composting easy.
Use your preferred channels to inform customers about their new, free AI digital sorting tool
Access a real-time hauler dashboard that informs you about scan activity within your service area.
Receive an annual report ready for direct submission to your PRO for education and outreach cost reimbursements.
2
Educate on Contaminant Impact
From Wish-Cycling to Wise-Cycling
3
Track progress in Real-Time
Export your Annual Metrics
Through its sorting educational tool, POUBELLE.AI, currently in development,
provides a turnkey digital infrastructure to
help businesses and organizations navigate the transition to the
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Program.It educates users on sorting habits aligned with the
Minimal Recyclable List (MRL), and helps hit zero-waste targets.
Educational Capabilities
Hyper-Local Accuracy: 100% alignment with the Minimum Recyclable List (MRL), tailored to specific facility capabilities (geo-localization or ZIP code entry)
Educational Engine: Teaches the "why" behind every bin-side decision.
Impact Transparency: We bridge the gap by showing users exactly what their recycled items become in the circular economy.
Brand-Agnostic Integration: Our UI instantly adopts the "Recycle Right" Colorado master brand and "Core Four" categories.
Equity & Accessibility: Inclusive, multilingual support ensuring public awareness reaches all residents and visitors.
Performance Tracking: Real-time dashboards provide the granular data needed for Annual Reporting on contamination and engagement.
Sustainability by Design
We’ve engineered POUBELLE.AI to ensure its digital footprint is as clean as the bins it fixes.
Training, Not Dependency: Users scan to learn. As their knowledge increases, the energy consumption naturally drops.
Smart Caching: The system doesn’t "overthink." Common items are pulled from memory instantly, keeping compute power extremely low.
100% Renewable Hosting: The platform runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers powered by 100% clean energy.
TARGET ROADMAP
Phase 1: Setting the Stage
Spring 2026 | Pilot Launch
Milestone: Activation of the first 100 stickers in the Pearl Street corridor.Objective: Setting up live data and AI to match local sorting rules.
Phase 2: The Summer Surge
June – July 2026 | Peak Tourism Season
Milestone: 500+ stickers deployed city-wide.Objective: Solving "Visitor Confusion." Providing instant answers to thousands of tourists to keep Boulder’s public bins contamination-free during the busiest months of the year.
Phase 3: The Educational Integration
August 2026 | CU Boulder "Move-In"
Milestone: Campus-wide integration for 35,000+ returning students.Objective: Capturing the "Move-In" waste surge and educating new residents on Boulder’s specific Zero-Waste ordinances.
Phase 4: Community & Family Alignment
October 2026 | CU Family Weekend
Milestone: Engaging the broader support network of the University.Objective: Validating the system through real-world family engagement, demonstrating how Boulder’s legacy of environmental leadership is now powered by AI to make sustainable living effortless.
Phase 5: The Regional Expansion
September 2026 | The Denver "Waste No More" Mandate
Milestone: Denver Metro Development: Apartments & Businesses.Objective: Scaling the Boulder success to meet Denver’s new city-wide compliance laws. Providing the essential tool for thousands of businesses facing strict new waste sorting requirements.
Phase 6: The Global Stage
January 2027 | Sundance Film Festival
Milestone: Sundance 2027 Global LaunchObjective: Scaling to a global audience. Providing the "Source of Truth" for the world's premier independent film festival. As Sundance moves to Boulder, we helps global visitors and creators protect our community by making "Sorting Right" as easy as taking a photo.
EXPANSION ROADMAP
POUBELLE.AI will scale to the most complex waste environments in the United States.We are targeting high-density metropolitan areas where strict local mandates and high contamination rates create an immediate need for AI-driven sorting. By focusing on these high-stakes environments, we ensure that POUBELLE.AI is deployed where it can achieve the greatest positive impact for our planet.
Among the cities leading the global commitment to our planet, our development plan includes these strategic hubs—with many more to come next:
The Tech & Policy Hubs
Austin, TX: Supporting the Austin Resource Recovery goal of reaching Zero Waste by 2040.
San Francisco, CA: Solving contamination in the city that pioneered the first large-scale urban composting program.
Seattle, WA: Integrating with the nation’s strictest mandatory composting and recycling laws for businesses and residents.
The Infrastructure Giants
Chicago, IL: Bringing the Poubelle standard to the Midwest’s largest logistics and waste hub.
New York City, NY: Deploying "Smart Nodes" to manage the massive complexity of the NYC Department of Sanitation’s (DSNY) evolving curbside composting rollout.
Interested for your city?
HISTORY
Guillaume Poubelle - Boulder 2026
140 Years apart
Two forward-looking Cities
One Name
Same Passion
Same Vision
Eugène Poubelle - Paris 1884
The 2026 Legacy
Today, the challenge has evolved from a lack of containers to a lack of clarity. 140 years later, Eugène’s direct descendant, Guillaume Poubelle, is advancing what his ancestor started. Standing in Boulder, Colorado, a city that leads the modern world in waste policy just as Paris did in the 1880s, Guillaume is bridging the gap between the physical bin and instant AI guidance, making waste sorting effortless for the modern world.
The Paris Crisis & The Birth of the "Poubelle"In 1884, Paris was a city of light drowning in refuse. On March 7, the Prefect of the Seine, Eugène Poubelle, signed a revolutionary decree mandating that every building provide three specific containers: one for organics, one for paper/cloth, and one for glass.The move faced fierce pushback from landlords, and the Parisian press began mockingly calling the bins "Poubelles" to ridicule the man behind the mandate. However, the system worked so efficiently that the name transformed from a satirical insult into the global French word for "trash can." Eugène didn't just invent a box; he invented a behavior that defined modern hygiene.
From the recycling innovation to the Eiffel Tower
The same administrative courage that mandated the first 'Poubelles' also paved the way for Paris’ most iconic landmarks and essential health systems, proving that true progress requires both a vision for the future and the grit to build it.
The Signature of an Icon
Beyond waste management, Eugène Poubelle was a key architect of the Parisian landscape we know today. On January 8, 1887, acting as the Prefect of the Seine, Poubelle co-signed the historic contract with Gustave Eiffel that authorized the construction of the Eiffel Tower. While the "Iron Lady" was initially met with fierce public protest, Poubelle’s signature ensured that the 300-meter marvel would rise to define the Paris skyline for the 1889 World’s Fair and beyond.
Victory Over the Great Plagues
Eugène Poubelle’s most vital legacy was his war against disease. Working in the shadows of the massive urban projects begun by Baron Haussmann, Poubelle addressed the final, missing link in the city's hygiene: the connection between the home and the sewer. Following the cholera outbreak of 1892, he signed the landmark 1894 decree mandating Tout-à-l'égout—forcing every building in Paris to connect directly to the underground sewer system. This single act of administrative courage finally eliminated the contaminated water in the streets, effectively ending the threat of cholera in the capital.
PARTNERS
Bridging the gap between production and disposal through AI-driven waste intelligence.
Launch & Funding Partnerships
For organizations investing in the infrastructure of the circular economy.
Fund the Missing Link: Your investment helps building the digital bridge between sustainable products and the consumer’s bin, ensuring all items reach the right circular stream.
Scale a Legacy: Help us take the "Poubelle" history into the digital age. Your support provides the foundation for technology designed to improve sorting habits, decrease contamination and increase waste diversion for a healthier planet.
Business & Operational Partnerships
For entities focused on improving diversion, reducing costs, and managing performance.
The Producer: Secure Bonus C Compliance. Meet Colorado’s Circular Action Alliance (CAA) and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) audit requirements with verifiable digital engagement metrics. Ensure customers know exactly how to recycle your product in their specific zip code.
The Institution: Deploy POUBELLE.AI across campuses and corporate facilities to limit contamination and provide students or employees with a tool that reflects your values.
The Hauler & Materials Recovery Facility (MRF): Protect Your Stream. Identify contamination hotspots before they reach your facility. Partner with us to create a cleaner, more profitable stream of recyclables.
Get in Touch
TRASH ROYALTY LLC dba POUBELLE.AI
637 S Broadway Street, Suite B141
Boulder, CO 80305
(720) 960-1026
2026 POUBELLE.AI | a Trademark of Trash Royalty.
LEGAL & COMPLIANCE
1. Privacy Policy
POUBELLE.AI is committed to protecting your privacy while helping you protect the planet.Image Processing: Our AI processes images of waste items solely for the purpose of identification and sorting guidance. We do not use image data to identify users or collect biometric information.Data Usage: We collect anonymized sorting data to improve our AI's accuracy and to provide local municipalities with insights on waste trends.Colorado Privacy Act (CPA): In accordance with Colorado law, you have the right to access, delete, or opt-out of the processing of your personal data. We do not sell user data to third parties.2. Terms of Service
By using POUBELLE.AI, you agree to the following:Accuracy Disclaimer: While our AI is trained on high-fidelity data, and uses up to date local sorting guidances, sorting rules vary by jurisdiction and can change. POUBELLE.AI provides recommendations, but the user is ultimately responsible for following the specific guidelines of their local waste hauler (e.g., Western Disposal, Eco-Cycle).AI Accuracy & User Responsibility DisclaimerPOUBELLE.AI utilizes advanced machine learning to identify materials; however, AI is inherently probabilistic. Our guidance is based on current local ordinances in Boulder and Denver, which are subject to change without notice.The "Final Stream" Rule: The user acknowledges that POUBELLE.AI does not control the final sorting facilities. If a local hauler or facility rejects an item identified by the AI, POUBELLE.AI holds no liability for resulting contamination fines or service interruptions.Condition of Items: AI identification assumes items are "Clean, Dry, and Empty." The user is responsible for ensuring that residue (e.g., food waste in a pizza box) is removed as per local requirements, even if the material itself is identified as recyclable.No Warranty: This service is provided "as is." While we strive for 100% accuracy, we do not warrant that the identification of every item will be correct or compliant with shifting municipal regulations.Prohibited Items: Do not use this service to identify or handle hazardous materials, medical waste, or explosive substances. Always contact local emergency services or specialized disposal centers for dangerous goods.Liability: POUBELLE.AI is not liable for fines, contamination fees, or damages resulting from the misidentification of waste items.3. Regulatory Disclosure
City of Boulder: POUBELLE.AI is an independent technology platform. While we align with the Universal Zero Waste Ordinance, we are not an official government agency or enforcement body.Denver Mandates: Guidance for the City of Denver is provided in anticipation of the September 2026 Waste No More mandates and is subject to update as city rules evolve.4. Intellectual Property
Trademarks: "POUBELLE.AI," our custom icons, and the "Heritage to Innovation" branding are trademarks of Trash Royalty LLC.Heritage Note: The use of the "Poubelle" name and history honors the legacy of Eugène-René Poubelle (1884). All historical "Remixed" content and AI-generated imagery on this site are protected by copyright.