There are a number of startups working to improve trash sorting with robots. AMP Robotics is near the top of the list, coupling a picker and a conveyor belt to sort materials in large, automated facilities. The technology aims to correct human shortcomings when it comes to recycling. Too often people either don't bother to separate trash, or simply don't understand where things go. Founded in 2015, CleanRobotics hopes to correct the issue at the point of disposal. The Colorado firm's flagship trashbot system uses on-board machine learning and robotic systems to sort materials from a single disposal point.

The sorting of robotic recycling employs artificial intelligence and robotic materials so that people do not have to sort plastics. These firms use modern cameras and technology to sort recycling robots and minimise health concerns associated with human labour. Cameras and high-tech computing devices that are designed to sniff certain products will lead the arms of robots to their destination through conveyor belts. Enormous hands, with arms connecting sensors, can pull out the otherwise waste cans and put them into their conveyor belt with glass, plastic containers and other recyclables. Recycling robots continue to help people, but firms have discovered that they would work twice as effective as people.

At a mall in Sydney, Australia, "the world's first smart trash can" is fastidiously photographing, weighing, and sorting garbage. The industrious TrashBot is a long way from home. Trashbot was born in Pittsburgh at the AlphaLab Gear startup accelerator. There, the CleanRobotics team has been developing a machine that uses cameras, sensors, and machine learning to ensure that garbage ends up in the landfill and recyclables don't. They're tackling a problem that most environmentalists would agree needs to be solved: only about 20 percent of what goes in those blue bins actually ends up recycled, according to CleanRobotics co-founder Tanner Cook.