What are the benefits?
Safety Improvements
The waste and recycling industry is one of the most dangerous industries to work in due to the close interface between machinery and people, and repetitive, straining activities common in facilities like MRFs.
The introduction robotic pickers into the sorting process reduces the need for manual labour. This allows existing picking staff to be upskilled and utilised elsewhere within the business, moving them into less dangerous roles.
Additionally, using a robotic arm minimises the exposure of workers to high-risk working environments, strenuous tasks and interfacing with waste, leading to a safer work environment and fewer injuries.
Increased Efficiency and Throughput
The AI-arm will improve the speed and accuracy of sorting through the recycling we receive at the MRF. This is due to the AI learning and robotics ability to work continuously without being damaged. The action of sorting and picking through recycling are fast and repetitive, and when carried out by people, regular breaks and pauses are needed. By using robotics, we not only save our staff from potentially straining work but breaks in the sorting are also not needed. This means even more recycling collected can be accurately and efficiently sorted while protecting our staff.
As this is a single robot, the MRF is a process which still has several manual elements such as loading, pre-sort and emptying bunkers, therefore the MRF will continue to operate during its existing hours. However, if the robot is a success we may choose to invest in more robots continuing to automate MRF processes. In future this provides the potential for the MRF to operate longer hours to handle larger quantities of recyclables, optimising operational productivity.
Enhanced Accuracy and Quality
The super-fast processing abilities of our AI-arm makes for incredibly accurate recognition and selection of our target materials, meaning more materials are correctly picked out and really recycled. The inbuilt advanced sensors and machine learning algorithms makes it highly accurate in identifying and categorising the different materials on the belt. This ability to learn, recognise and pick out recyclable is beyond any human capability. By using this technology, Recorra are reducing contamination and will be producing the highest quality material output possible for our partners, customers and circular products.
Versatility in Sorting Various Materials
The strength of AI comes from its versatility and ability to continue to learn with our needs. Through its ‘training period’ in our MRF, our recycling robot will be able to learn how to precisely pick plastics, cardboard and coffee cups. Each of these materials the arm can separate and collect into their own dedicated bins.
The process of adapting and learning to identify specific materials within material mixes occurs as it works. This adaptability also means the robot can be used to minimise the exposure of workers to potentially harmful types of waste.
Although the arm will be programmed to sort plastics, card and coffee cups, we could change this in future with ‘re-training’. However, this is not as simple as pressing a button and asking it to pick a different material, it will take weeks/months to re-train. This versatility allows the MRF to handle a broader range of materials, improving overall recovery rates and making the facility more adaptable to inevitable changes in waste composition from changing legislation.
