A New Look at Recycling: How Robots and AI Could Build a Waste-Free World
In early 2021, the world suddenly began talking about the emerging and still unprofitable carbon capture technology market. Experts said that new large-scale technologies were needed to recycle CO2 into everything from energy to cement. In January, Elon Musk announced that he would pay a $100 million prize to whoever develops a carbon capture technology that reduces emissions during production.
As the owner of electric carmaker Tesla, Musk has strong reasons to invest in green technologies. There are many reasons to believe the "green economy" is about to bloom. For example, the White House promised to create 10 million new clean energy jobs, and a startup from Denver raised $55 million to develop AI-based recycling robots.
Recycling and the green economy
In the US alone, the current recycling rate is about 32%. Waste collection and recycling is a highly fragmented industry with varying levels of regulation, subsidies and other factors, which makes it difficult to understand the current state of the market and its potential.
The green economy is trying to replace a massive industry: fossil fuels. A few years ago, nearly 1,500 oil and gas companies with a combined value of $4.65 trillion were listed on stock exchanges around the world.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the value of major oil companies fell significantly, as green technologies (such as solar and wind power) have "matured" and captured market share. According to recent estimates, total revenues from oil and gas production amount to about $3.3 trillion.
The renewable energy market is expected to reach more than $1.5 trillion by 2025. In addition, the electric vehicle market is expected to show by then the kind of growth everyone expects from an emerging tech sector. Nobody claims that recycling another batch of plastic bottles will change the world in a minute, but it could become a viable sector within the broader green economy.
A startup making AI-powered recycling robots
The key to building a more sustainable recycling market is providing end users' companies with cheap raw materials. It is hard to trust people to sort trash correctly, so most recyclables end up in landfills. Recycling vending machines can provide a steady source of some materials, but how do you encourage consumers to participate and pay for such a method?
The best solution may be extracting selected materials from a single-stream waste source after it reaches a sorting facility. This requires fast and smart robots.
AMP Robotics, founded in 2015, attracted $74.5 million in investment in late 2020 and early 2021. Sadako Technologies and ZenRobotics continue to compete in this space, but they do not have the same level of funding and high-profile clients as AMP Robotics.
An AI platform for identifying recyclables
The founder and CEO of AMP Robotics developed the technology that became the basis of his company. The result of all the research and development is Neuron, a platform that applies computer vision and deep learning to guide high-speed robotic systems in accurately identifying and differentiating recyclables.
Recyclables are detected in the waste stream by color, size, shape, opacity and consumer brand. Robotic systems can pick small items such as bottle caps off the conveyor belt at a rate of more than 80 items per minute. The company calls its high-speed robotics system AMP Cortex.
The Neuron AI platform uses machine learning to improve over time, integrating data from its Cortex robotic systems deployed for different clients around the world. The AI can identify various types of plastic, including polyethylene terephthalate, high-density polyethylene, low-density polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene. It even sorts plastics by color, transparency and various form factors.
How AMP Robotics built a profitable business
Like many other companies, AMP Robotics has benefited from the wider adoption of automation technologies. At the end of 2020, the company signed a long-term deal with Waste Connections, a waste management company valued at $25 billion, for 24 AI-controlled robotic systems.
One of AMP's first corporate partners was beverage giant Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP). Now AI-powered recycling robots are trained to correctly identify and sort K-Cup coffee pods at recycling facilities. Such small items have a huge environmental impact. Before KDP made K-Cup pods fully recyclable, billions of pods ended up in landfills.
AMP robots are already deployed worldwide, in more than 20 US states as well as in Asia and Europe. In 2020, the company opened a test center in Colorado and is expanding its AI applications for construction waste.
One satisfied customer said: "We are running at full capacity because AMP robots work all day, and robots don't need overtime. They work at the same speed whether they are alert in the morning after a cup of coffee or at the end of a 10-hour shift. Without the robots, we would see leftovers and items that should have been picked out. We no longer see those. AMP robots are built for the harsh conditions you face in recycling."
