AMP Robotics Corp. ("AMP"), a pioneer in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and infrastructure for the waste and recycling industry, has raised $91 million in corporate equity in a Series C financing, led by Congruent Ventures and Wellington Management as well as new and existing investors including Blue Earth Capital, Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP), Tao Capital Partners, XN, Sequoia Capital, GV, Range Ventures, and Valor Equity Partners. This new round of funding follows a $55 million Series B financing led by XN in January 2021. "Our focus from the outset has been our application of AI-powered automation to economically and sustainably improve our global recycling system" "Advancements in robotics and automation are accelerating the transformation of traditional infrastructure, and AMP is seeking to reshape the waste and recycling industries," said Michael DeLucia, sector lead for Climate Investing, Wellington Management. "By bringing digital intelligence to the recycling industry, AMP can sort waste streams and extract additional value beyond what is otherwise possible." AMP will use the latest funding to scale its business operations while continuing its international expansion.

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.

Deep learning is on the rise in the recycling industry, according to the new e-book, Harnessing the Potential of AI, from Tomra Sorting Recycling, a sensor-based sorting technology company with headquarters in Norway. Dispelling a common misconception about AI, this latest e-book chronicles the 30-year history and contributions AI has already made to the recycling industry, as well the bright future that lies ahead, according to a Tomra news release. "In the months and years to come, those in the recycling industry will hear much more about deep learning, a powerful component of artificial intelligence," says Daniel Bender, technical manager, deep learning for Tomra Sorting. "Deep learning shows the promise of providing solutions for the industry's most complex sorting challenges. Recycling operations at the forefront of using AI to sort material stand to gain a significant advantage over companies who do not."

Editor's note: This is part of a series about ongoing risks and evolving labor issues in the recycling industry. Read more about persistent safety hazards and how MRF operators are responding. Also check out a feature on the firsthand experiences of California workers and the complex medical claim process they face. In MRFs across the U.S., dozens of arms hover over conveyors and appear to be in nearly constant motion sorting incoming materials. Previously, those arms exclusively were attached to humans. Now, a shift is occurring. Increasingly, more of those are arms attached to robots that use pincers or suction cups, instead of fingers, and move much faster. Advanced MRF automation and robotics weren't widely adopted concepts up until about five years ago, according to equipment manufacturers.

Last year's Cyber Monday was the biggest single shopping day in Amazon's 25 year history, but the company's success has led to problems for the country's recycling industry. The number of annual deliveries through the US Postal Service, Amazon's default delivery method, has doubled over the last decade, going from 3.1 billion in 2009 to 6.2 billion in 2018. The extraordinary growth of cardboard waste from shipping materials has been dubbed'the Amazon effect' at many waste removal and recycling companies. Waste management and recylcing firms have begun to call the enormous growth in packaging materials that end up in the trash as'the Amazon effect' According to a report in The Verge, corrugated cardboard accounts for close to half of the curbside recycling material in New York today, compared to just fifteen percent in 2003. The enormous increase in residential packaging materials has come at the worst possible time, as in 2018 China, formerly the world's largest recycler, began refusing shipments of recyclable cardboard from the US in instances where it was contaminated by .5 percent or more of other material.

In recent years, the recycling industry has taken a big hit. John Griffith with GFL Environmental in Denver, Colorado says the cost to recycle has gone up, and there's more pressure to make sure what's being recycled isn't contaminated with trash. "We process probably 30 tons an hour," Griffith said. Considering how much material the recycling facility takes in per day, low-cost efficiency is key, and technology has become its saving grace. "We're using robotics and artificial intelligence to help deal with some of the primary challenges within the recycling facility," AMP Robotics CEO Matanya Horowitz said.