At Vancouver International Airport (YVR), we decided to make that moment a little smarter—and a lot less wasteful.

Enter Oscar, the intelligent self-sorting bin that helps passengers and staff properly dispose of waste in real time. Developed by Vancouver-based company  Intuitive AI, Oscar uses artificial intelligence to identify items and guide users with visual prompts on the correct bin to use, whether it’s for recyclables, organics, mixed paper, or landfill.

Oscar first joined the YVR team six years ago as part of a pilot project. Since then, the partnership has grown into a long-term collaboration to transform how we manage waste at the airport: using technology, education, and a dash of personality.

Why sorting matters

Each year, passengers at YVR generate more than two million kilograms of waste, equivalent to the weight of over 1,300 standard pickup trucks. That’s a lot of cups, containers, chopsticks, and leftovers, and it highlights why sorting right isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s essential.

Our latest waste audit showed that over 50% of the waste collected in food courts could have been composted, but it didn’t make it to the right bin. Contamination remains a challenge. When a single wrong item goes into the compost bin, it can spoil an entire batch and send it all to landfill.

Oscar helps prevent that. Using a built-in camera and machine learning, Oscar recognizes the item in your hand and displays a visual cue that tells you exactly where it should go. It’s a quick interaction that helps us get it right, one piece of waste at a time.

A partnership rooted in innovation

Our collaboration with Intuitive AI represents more than just a smart bin. It’s part of YVR’s broader commitment to supporting local innovation that drives sustainability outcomes. As a community-focused airport, we’re proud to partner with Canadian companies that bring bold ideas to life, right here in our terminal.

Oscar is just one example. From working with ChopValue  to turn over one million used chopsticks into new furniture and tabletops, to switching to reusable cutlery in staff break rooms, we’re looking at every opportunity to reduce waste, rethink materials, and create a more circular system at YVR.

Small nudges, big impact

What makes Oscar especially effective is its gentle approach. There’s no shaming here—just friendly prompts, cheerful animations, and a simple call to action: Let’s sort this out together.

It’s designed to be intuitive (pun intended), accessible to international travellers, and aligned with the regional waste systems we follow in Metro Vancouver.

Whether it’s helping a family with kids figure out where their lunch leftovers go, or encouraging a frequent flyer to reconsider what they toss, Oscar is playing a role in helping thousands of passengers make better choices every day.

Part of a bigger picture

Oscar is just one piece of a broader effort. Waste reduction is a key pillar in YVR’s 2025–2027 Environmental Sustainability Plan, and we’re taking a systems-level approach to reduce landfill waste, improve recycling and composting, and support a culture of reusability and circular thinking.

This summer, we’re increasing our messaging across the terminal to help passengers better understand their role in reducing waste. From using refillable water bottles to avoiding single-use plastics and knowing where items go when it’s time to toss them, there are plenty of simple choices each traveller can make to support a cleaner airport, and a healthier planet.

What’s next?

We’re continuing to scale Oscar’s presence across the terminal and exploring new ways to make waste sorting even easier, whether through thoughtful design, better education, or emerging technologies.

Because when it comes to environmental impact, every item counts. And together—with the help of clever tools like Oscar and partnerships that drive innovation—we’re working to ensure sustainability doesn’t just live on a poster. It lives in every bin, every action, and every journey.

Tracking progress, setting ambitious goals

Since 2012, we’ve increased our waste diversion rate from 38% to 54% while reducing the amount of garbage generated per passenger by 27%. These milestones reflect years of dedicated work, made possible by the support and creativity of our partners and community. And we are not stopping there. As outlined in our recently launched 2025-2027 Environmental Sustainability Plan, we are committed to advancing our waste diversion rate to 60% by 2027, with a long-term vision of becoming a zero waste airport by 2040 – or more simply, a waste diversion rate of at least 90% for the Main Terminal. Over the next few years, we will be laying the groundwork and developing a Zero Waste 2040 Action Plan, which will serve as our roadmap for achieving this ambitious vision.

Celebrating collaboration and leadership

Reducing waste is a shared effort. That’s why we’ve launched initiatives like Waste Wars, our cross-terminal challenge that brings together airport employees to learn, engage, and compete in fun, educational ways. Designed to spark behaviour change and improve waste sorting accuracy, the program was recently recognized with the FAB Airport Sustainability & Environmental Initiative of the Year for the Americas, a testament to the strength of our collaborative approach to environmental responsibility.

We also recognize others making a difference through our Green Excellence Awards. Last year’s Community Eco-Champion Award went to the Fairmont Vancouver Airport, whose team collected more than 50 pounds of waste from YVR loading docks and McDonald Beach. They also hosted a community thrift shop to promote reuse and circular economy thinking. Their efforts show how environmental care can be part of daily operations.

A circular partnership in action: ChopValue

A standout partner in our waste reduction journey is ChopValue, a Vancouver-based company that transforms used chopsticks into high-performance products. Since 2017, ChopValue has collected more than 1.5 million chopsticks from YVR’s food courts—diverting material from landfill and saving over 77,000 kilograms of CO₂e emissions.

Their creations are now part of the YVR experience and demonstrate our ongoing commitment to embedding circular economy principles as part of our Zero Waste strategy. More than 456,000 chopsticks have been repurposed into furniture, awards, and custom items found throughout the terminal. This includes handcrafted Green Excellence Award trophies, food court tabletops, staff giveaways, and most recently, the new tabletops at Purebread. These are the latest examples of how we integrate circular design into the airport environment.

See the impact for yourself

Curious to see how chopsticks become tables, trophies, and more?
Watch our video for a behind-the-scenes look at ChopValue’s transformation process and how they’re turning everyday waste into meaningful products.