An artificially intelligent recycling bin purchased by the City of Saskatoon has come under fire after documents revealed it correctly sorted items only 37.6% of the time.The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) obtained the records showing the city spent more than $26,000 on the “Oscar Sort” unit — a so-called “smart recycling assistant” that uses a screen to tell users which bin to use.“It’s absurd the city thinks it should spend tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to tell those same taxpayers what bin to put their pop cans in,” said Gage Haubrich, Prairie Director of CTF. “The City of Saskatoon is trying really hard to win a government waste award this year for this project.”.OLDCORN: Saskatchewan should follow Alberta’s lead on drug courts and learn from Portugal.Purchased in January 2025 with municipal and federal funding through the Food Waste Prevention and Diversion: Research and Capacity Building Fund, Oscar Sort was billed as a “centralized zero-touch zero-waste station” designed to gamify recycling and boost diversion rates.According to city data, the system’s accuracy fell by 12.4% between June and July, dropping to 37.6%..The city paid $23,657 for the Oscar Sort unit, $1,805 for garbage and recycling bins, and an additional $800 for a tent to house the machine at the Saskatoon Jazz Festival.Federal taxpayers are also contributing to the initiative, with Ottawa providing $150,000 over two years to support the project. The city has received $69,000 so far, according to the documents..Pro-Hamas protest greets Throne Speech at Saskatchewan Legislature.The expenditure comes as Saskatoon faces projected property tax hikes of 9.9% in 2026 and 7.3% in 2027.“When Saskatoon’s budgeting is a dumpster fire, it’s ridiculous the city thinks this is a good use of taxpayer money — this stinks,” Haubrich said. “The city and the feds should be helping Saskatoon residents by making their lives more affordable, not by forcing them to pay for a smart screen garbage can that’s wrong more than half the time.”
