AMP Robotics uses automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to sort materials within waste streams. We asked CEO Matanya Horowitz how this works, how data can be utilised and the ways automated sorting could impact the packaging industry. AMP Robotics developed an AI platform (AMP Neuron) to distinguish recyclable materials from waste. How did you come up with the idea? Ever since I was a child I've been interested in robotics and the origins of intelligence.

Have you ever been confused about how to file your taxes? Unsure about how to understand your partner? It turns out that many of us find the act of recycling as more confusing than all of the above. As a result, we do a poor job of recycling right, with less than 10% of our global resources recycled, and tossing 1 of every 5 items ( 17%) in a recycling bin that shouldn't be there. That's bad news for everyone -- recycling facilities catch fire, we lose billions of dollars in recyclable material every year -- and at an existential level, we miss an opportunity to leverage recycling as an impactful tool to combat climate change.

Nissan's ProPilot self-driving chair brings more to mind than just a novel way to wait in line. The plot follows a waste-management robot tasked with cleaning up Earth nearly 700 years in the future. On a spaceship far away, humans have devolved into helpless creatures ferried around on floating chairs while small armies of service robots attend to their every need. SEE ALSO: Nissan's self-driving chairs are the future of waiting in line What else did WALL-E get right about our increasingly robotic world? Though not nearly as cute as the movie's titular hero, the recycling robots at ZenRobotics can sort all kinds of waste.