ZABBLE, INC. SBIR Phase I Award, December 2021

Zabble’s mission is to enable organizations to achieve zero waste by delivering an end-to-end waste analytics platform with real-time actionable insights. Our immediate focus is to create a zero waste blueprint for the healthcare industry followed by universities and corporations which make up 53% of the commercial buildings in the US. There are 6200 hospitals across the US generate up to 30 lbs of waste per patient per day, 6 times more than the national per capita average. This disposal of waste costs hospitals $10B every year of which $7B is in excess. According to interviews with 50+ Directors of Environmental Services and Sustainability managing over 150 hospitals, there is an urgent need for data tracking tools which provide insights to optimize their processes. Hospitals discard unused medical supplies into the waste stream ending up overspending on supplies that end up in landfills and incinerators. Improper disposal of waste results in municipal solid waste ending up in regulated medical waste streams costing hospitals 10x more in disposal costs. With COVID-19 the amount of waste per patient is higher from increased use of PPE and single-use disposables. The current solution involves conducting one-time waste audits that don’t capture the origin of waste within the facility or the relationship of waste with time. The other options include installing sensors on containers that monitor fullness and items that are not disposed of in bags. This solution fails at tracking granular contamination information of items in the bags and is logistically difficult to maintain when deployed in large numbers. We have developed a SaaS platform for hospitals to track their waste streams with AI and engage stakeholders by creating feedback loops to reduce excess disposal, reuse materials and send less waste to landfills. We currently work with large institutions like UCSF and The Recycling Partnership and with the help of a grant from the city of San Francisco, we have already proven that our methodology has reduced sending more than a 1000 tons to landfills within a year equivalent to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from 14000 passenger cars driven for one year.