The sheer volume of waste the business world generates is more than human workers can handle. Thankfully, automation has enabled sorting plants to comb through massive amounts of mixed garbage and recyclables, improving sustainability and earning money from materials that people would otherwise discard. How is technology improving waste management?
Picker Robots
E-waste — such as discarded phones, computers and televisions — contains several elements that are expensive to procure and process. Traditional recycling processes often damage or fail to separate these elements from electronic device during processing, leading to precious metals and toxins ending up in landfills.
Now, robots are changing the landscape of warehouses and sorting operations. Apple’s iPhone recycling robot, Daisy, can remove several precious metals and minerals from a phone. It freezes the glue inside an iPhone to render it useless, then separates the device into its basic elements. Daisy can pick apart 200 iPhones an hour — and never gets tired or calls in sick.
Sorting Machines
New recycling technologies make it easier than ever to sort through garbage and direct it where it needs to go.
For example, TOMRA’s Autosort Optical Sorter visually analyzes recyclable waste on a conveyor belt. It employs laser object detection with AI and color sensing, ultra-high resolution near-infrared spectroscopy, and metal sensors to look through discarded items, sorting them by color. Its air compressor shoots items from below to remove them from the conveyor belt. Sorting by color helps different materials — such as discarded gold or copper — end up in recycling rather than the garbage.
AMP Robotics’ recycling machines sort through trash faster than humanly possible. Their AI sensors process millions of images, helping the robots learn to distinguish between different materials. AMP Robotics hopes to make recycling more economically viable by collecting the most valuable materials for processing.
Robotic lift trucks also make it easier to sort through waste. These driverless forklifts cruise through a warehouse and can automatically detect incoming pallets of scrap metal, garbage or any other refuse product, moving them where they need to go.
Robots help overwhelmed waste management businesses operate with fewer employees and divert recyclables from the garbage for reuse. By reusing the precious metals and minerals found in discarded items, manufacturers can reduce their reliance on mining, improving their overall sustainability.
Smart Dumpsters
Every year, the world produces over 50 million metric tons of e-waste. People throw a significant portion of this debris into dumpsters, either because they do not know how to dispose of it properly, face high disposal costs or lack access to an e-waste recycling facility. Vast piles of discarded electronics litter developing countries like China and India.
Businesses can install smart sensors in their dumpsters to prevent e-waste from going to the landfill. Dumpsters outfitted with AI cameras provide a rough estimate of the containers’ contents, including if someone threw the wrong type of garbage inside. For example, if an employee tosses food in a recycling bin, the AI sensors detect it so maintenance workers can avoid throwing out the whole batch of recyclables.
Miami has installed Compology waste metering sensors in several municipal dumpsters. The city predicts the smart dumpsters will reduce garbage collection costs by around 30% to 40% and make Miami more sustainable.
Making Sustainability Easy
Automation has allowed businesses to produce more trash than ever before, but it is also helping correct the problem. AI-enabled sorting machines, smart dumpsters and picker robots manage large volumes of waste with ease, improving sustainability and recouping material costs.
The new technology helps businesses become more sustainable without even having to think about it. Ultimately, that is the best way to make the corporate world greener — to make it happen automatically.
Jane Marsh works as the founder and editor-in-chief of Environment.co where she covers environmental news and sustainable living tips.
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