Tracking Trash with M.I.T.

"Collecting, transporting, storing and getting rid of garbage is a costly and often daunting task for cities. Lynn Brown, a spokeswoman for Waste Management Inc., a company that runs both landfills and recycling centers nationwide and is helping to underwrite the tracking project with $300,000, said garbage moved through a vast network of sites run by multiple contractors, which makes it challenging to find the most efficient way to handle it.

It also means hundreds of possible journeys for trash.

'From a logistics standpoint, it’s a very complicated situation,' Ms. Brown said. 'When you look at how waste is handled in different cities, it's like snowflakes. It’s all different.'"