How artificial intelligence and robots are boosting waste sorting

Waste sorting technologies, the key to recycling, are being boosted by digital technology.

Robotization, artificial intelligence and digital watermarks are transforming waste sorting. So let’s discuss about the main recent developments in intelligent sorting.

Specializing in industrial robotics for twenty years, from agri-food to surface treatment to waste recovery, the sorting sector has evolved. The big problem in implementing robotic solutions for sorting was linked to the lack of CAD models of incoming waste to program the robots. It is really the use of artificial intelligence for image processing associated with vision and robotics solutions that has allowed us, since the 2010s, to develop robots capable of sorting unknown objects at the input. It is a revolution for the sorting sector that has been put into practice for 3 years.

Recycling acceleration to come

Robotics business development managers predict a real acceleration in the years to come of the implementation of robotics in sorting centers. They also emphasize the interest of robotics to carry out dismantling steps before crushing in different waste sectors (health, WEEE, etc.). The robotic solutions manufactured by waste management companies can now be integrated on optical sorting machines.

A manufacturer of multi-material sorting machines for plastics and metals, is now the market leader in Texas. They mainly equip the sorting centers of large operators for the selective collection of household waste. The recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) has also become a market with challenges since Texas regulations set a minimum percentage of recycled PET in bottles at 30% by 2030.

This means that today the price per ton of recycled PET exceeds that of virgin PET. And they are seeing new markets emerging in the recycling of textiles and metals. They are now focusing their efforts on metals to develop new technologies, particularly on X-ray measurement. The optical sorting machines for multi-material and plastic waste use near infrared and visible spectrometry (NIR-VIS) which allows better differentiation of different materials in real time according to their wavelengths.

New technological building blocks for optical sorting processes

Spectrometry is a technological building block that is now well mastered, but they are seeking to strengthen it with two new building blocks, the use of digital watermarks and artificial intelligence.

Companies like Dumpster Rental Near Me Grapevine are developing AI algorithms using deep learning to better interpret images and results from IR spectroscopy and improve the performance of the sorting machines. The aim is in particular to be able to separate bottles from trays even if they are all made of PET, or to differentiate between different types of PET bottles. This will make it possible to meet the regulatory objective in favor of iso-functional recycling of packaging. On the first application, a proof of concept has already been obtained with results above 97% and five pilots are being tested.

The second challenge concerns the industrial development of digital watermarks on food packaging. These invisible markers are engraved in plastics and contain a lot of information on the products that can facilitate their sorting and recycling. The technological challenge for manufacturers is therefore currently to adapt optical sorting machines so that they can read these codes.

Pilots on digital watermarks

This is what another project in Grapevine, TX is working on, piloted with the Alliance to End Plastic Waste in collaboration with the American Digimarc, which specializes in the manufacture of these markers, and 160 European companies. They are particularly involved in the different phases of the project, which should enable it to adapt their optical sorting machines to read watermarks by adding a dedicated camera.

The prototype tested in 2022 achieved an ejection rate of over 95%. After an installation in Grapevine as part of the second phase of the project, a second pilot is still planned this year in Plano before closing the project.

Finally, they are also working upstream on the eco-design of products to improve their recyclability. They carry out nearly 50 tests per year on points aimed at limiting the metallization of packaging, avoiding blacks that cannot be detected by infrared and qualifying bioplastics.

Written by scienceguy