The U.S. faces a growing plastics problem. Despite accounting for just 4% of the global population, the nation produces 12% of the world’s municipal solid waste. While the U.S. has extensive recycling infrastructure in place, Americans only recycle 35% of the waste they produce.
This waste issue covers more than just plastics, but they’re a significant part of it. Single-use plastic products contribute to millions of tons of waste annually, and 94% of American tap water samples contain microplastics. These pollutants endanger both wildlife and humans, so something needs to change.
While this is a multifaceted issue, creating a more efficient recycling system can help. Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics may be the key to that goal.
The Recycling Crisis
The U.S. outsources much of its recycling. While China has recently stopped accepting recycling products, the nation still sends waste to other nations. Up to 70% of these materials don’t get recycled in the end, so this outsourcing proves ineffective.
The nation’s domestic recycling efforts don’t fare much better. Roughly one in four items people place in recycling containers are contaminated, rendering them unrecyclable. Sorting through these materials to separate recyclables from trash is an expensive, slow and challenging process.
Since it takes so much time and resources to sort and process, some cities have started burning or trashing recyclable materials. If the U.S. recycling system worked as it should, plastic waste would be a far less pressing issue. Contamination and inefficient sorting processes have rendered it ineffective, though, leading to growing plastic pollution.
How AI and Robotics Could Help
Recently, several startups and researchers have proposed a tech-centric solution. Automation, which makes manufacturing processes far more efficient, could do the same for recycling centers. AI-powered robots could sort waste from recyclables far faster and more accurately than people, recycling more materials.
Machine vision systems give these robots the ability to identify specific objects and determine whether they’re recyclable. They can then grab recyclable materials off conveyor belts and place them in bins away from the trash. This process is identical to how humans sort recyclables from waste, but robots are far more efficient at it.
AMP Robotics, one of the leading startups in this field, claims their machines can pick 70 to 80 items a minute. That’s twice as fast as a human worker, and the robots are theoretically more accurate, too. Machines can’t get tired or distracted, so they won’t make mistakes due to boredom or other distractions.
The waste and recycling industry also faces a growing labor shortage, hindering its productivity. Using robots to sort recyclables will help facilities improve efficiency despite struggling to find new workers. With machine learning systems, these systems will also grow more accurate the longer they stay in service.
Challenges With Robotic Recycling
For all of their benefits, recycling robots still come with some downsides. Most notably, these systems are expensive. One San Francisco-based recycling company spent $11 million to upgrade its one facility. While robots save money in the long run from reduced labor costs and improved productivity, these upfront expenses can be prohibitive.
Robots are also not a perfect solution. Machine vision may be more accurate than people, but it still doesn’t work as it should 100% of the time. Waste will continue to be an issue, albeit a less impactful one. Robots will have to work alongside humans, not replace them, to provide the most benefits.
These challenges mean that the shift towards automation will be a long, gradual one. Eventually, though, AI-powered robots could revolutionize plastic recycling.
Sustainability Is Challenging, But Technology Can Help
Reducing the nation’s plastic waste won’t solve the entire sustainability problem, but it’s an excellent first step. Technology like AI and robotics make it easier to tackle these challenging tasks, bringing people closer to broader sustainability goals. Robots may not disrupt recycling overnight, but they’re slowly making it a more efficient process.
