Sorting : AMP Robotics launches AI-powered sortation to improve recycling
AMP’s new software, AMP Clarity, captures data on mixed plastics like PET, HDPE, LDPE, PP, and PS, aluminum recyclables like used beverage cans and fiber, such as corrugated cardboard and sorted residential paper and newsprint.
Material data is collected, classified, and sub-classified so materials recovery facilities (MRFs) can see what recyclables are flowing through different stages of their operation. This monitoring can help prevent the loss of recyclables to landfill, diagnose gaps in processing efficiency, audit the composition of material streams, and create certainty about final bale content and material quality.
“Data transparency in the recycling industry has been a longstanding challenge due to the complexity of mixed material streams, compounded by ongoing changes in consumer packaging. These obstacles often create impediments to accurate data collection and prevent a clear understanding of what goes into and comes out of the different infrastructure stages that support recycling,” said Matanya Horowitz, founder and CEO of AMP Robotics. “Our material characterization software digitizes the real-time flow of recyclables with precision and consistency, providing opportunities to identify gaps in material capture, transparency on what recyclables are and are not recycled, and a basis for standardized measurement vital to improve our national recycling system.”
AMP Clarity is a software-as-a-service solution available via an online web portal. Clarity is made possible through AMP’s portfolio of hardware systems including the AMP Cortex robotic sorting system and the company’s newly released AMP Vision system. The AMP Vision system is a standalone modular enclosure that can be dropped into a facility’s existing operation for specific data collection from residual, quality control, container, paper, and audit lines. For example, Clarity can serve as a QC application for other processing equipment like optical sorters or eddy currents to identify the recyclables that may have slipped by for capture later in the operation. Clarity could also be placed before the final material quality processing stage to identify contaminants before plastics, aluminum, or paper are baled for resale.
Earlier this month, AMP announced a new deployment of AI-guided robotic sorting systems with Evergreen, one of the nation’s largest recyclers of PET bottles. This installation marked AMP’s continued expansion of its technology with plastics reclaimers, the buyers of recovered plastics from MRFs. AMP’s technology identifies and sorts green and clear PET from post-consumer bales of plastic soft drink bottles, which Evergreen recycles into reusable flakes or pellets (rPET) and sells to end markets as feedstock for new containers and packaging.
AMP has also introduced automated secondary sorting facilities, which apply advanced automation enabled by AI to economically sort through low volumes of residue to recover mixed plastics. These material streams also contain high-value recyclables like UBCs and OCC that are in high demand for resale to aluminum manufacturers and paper mills. AMP’s secondary facilities drive down the cost of recovery while creating contamination-free, high-quality bales of recycled material for resale. AMP’s business model also introduces market certainty and new revenue streams for established MRFs by creating demand for residue that would otherwise cost businesses to dispose of.