Edmonton company hopes to help NASA combat space waste

Waste Parrot, a University of Alberta spin-off company recently beat out 1,200 international projects to be one of 17 finalists in a NASA competition to address waste in space.

Waste Parrot, a University of Alberta spinoff company, recently beat out 1,200 international projects to be one of 17 finalists in a NASA competition to address waste in space.

The 30-member team includes professors, masters and PhD students in various fields including robotics, computer vision, AI, plastic recycling and engineering.

They work out of the university’s Smart Lab and are the only Canadian group to make the short list.

Garbage is space is a big problem — and it’s expensive to bring waste back to earth.

“Usually one astronaut per month, they create 125 kg of waste,” explained Waste Parrot co-founder Rafiq Ahmad.

“If we are thinking about sustainably living on the moon or creating longer missions, that waste is then accumulating and then we will need to find a solution that we can recycle that waste in a better way.”

Their innovation includes a drone that finds waste and categorizes it based on what it’s made of.

Then, they hope to deploy unique 3D printers to the moon that can upcycle trash into tools astronauts need in space — like wrenches, brackets, and other replacement parts.