Applying machine learning to the recycling industry

The world generates 2 billion tonnes of domestic solid waste annually but less than ten per cent is recycled because the current recycling process is extremely inefficient. We're working with a start-up that is developing a revolutionary robotic system to significantly increase recycling efficiency. Danu Robotics is an Edinburgh-based clean tech company that is looking to improve the efficiency of recycling through automation. Currently, most recycling centres and plants operate by having human pickers sort through recycled goods on conveyor belts – any recyclable of the wrong category (eg any soda can in the paper recycling) is manually removed from the conveyor belt and either sorted into the correct category or disposed of if not recyclable. This process has many disadvantages: sorting recycling is a thankless and repetitive task; sorters are prone to error (especially late in a shift); and, as sorting rates are determined by the number of people working the conveyor belt, sorting can quickly become a bottleneck in the recycling process.