AI and robotic sorting
Cameras, near-infrared sensors and machine learning identify each item on a recycling line and robots or air jets pick it out, raising purity and capture.
Better sorting is the least glamorous and most proven way to raise recycling rates: cleaner bales sell for more, and more material can be recovered from the same trash. Systems from TOMRA, AMP and Greyparrot are already running in thousands of facilities, and their data also shows brands exactly which packaging fails.