Aarav Sharma
Singapore, 16
He/Him
Project: Smart Bin AI
The food piling up in Aarav's school cafeteria led him to a much larger figure: roughly 1.3 billion tons of food wasted worldwide every year. He built Smart Bin AI, an affordable system that uses computer vision to identify and estimate discarded waste with over 97% accuracy, cutting waste by 20% and diverting it from landfills. The AI-powered module shows individuals exactly how waste happens and gives institutions the data to inform decisions — a combination that shifts behavior and policy, not just habits. Smart Bin AI now operates in schools and companies across more than 15 countries, where 40,000+ people have identified 43,000 kilograms of wasted food. In 2025, Aarav presented the system at Web Summit, which brought together 70,000 technology experts from around the world. He is now scaling globally to help institutions prevent waste, reduce methane emissions, and support a circular, lower-carbon food system.