AI Helps Recyclers Turn Mixed Waste Into Reusable Materials

At a glance

As the world pushes to cut waste, AI and robots are helping recycling plants sort materials more accurately. NVIDIA's blog highlights four startups using AI to recover useful materials.

Key points

1. 1

   Taiwan's AIRECO uses AI vision to sort plastics more finely and robotic arms to pick materials from mixed waste.

2. 2

   AIRECO says its test line tops 95% recognition accuracy and plans to nearly triple capacity to 48,000 tons a year while cutting operating costs by 85%.

3. 3

   US startup EverestLabs AI runs robots that pick objects in real time from fast-moving conveyor belts.

4. 4

   EverestLabs AI has about 150 robots in North America and Australia, and estimates they have identified about 40 billion objects and recycled about 25,000 tons of material.

Why it matters

Recycled material is only used if it is as cheap and good as new material, and AI sorting could help solve those cost and quality problems.