The world is a gigantic landfill! Everyday tons of waste are generated from various households, hospitals, industries, construction and demolition sites and more. While today we have numerous ways to get rid of the accumulated waste, it still ends up affecting the safety and sustainability of the ecological system. Therefore, the best alternative is to reuse and recycle as much waste as possible. And offering an extra pair of hand in this are waste sorting and recycling robots.

One robot's skinny leg, which relies on computer vision to detect recyclables, plucks a hunk of blue plastic off a conveyor belt, while the other's grabs a piece of an old water bottle. The machine then places those bits into sorting bins using a vacuum gripper. For the nation's 600-plus recycling facilities, which process some 67 million tons of waste, these leggy robots from AMP Robotics are one answer to the current bottlenecks facing the industry. Even before Covid-19 struck, AMP Robotics was starting to gain traction. But as boxes from home deliveries piled up at recycling centers and hiring--already a tough proposition--got even tougher as workers feared getting ill, AMP's business boomed.

Can this paper packaging go into the recycle bin? Where should this bubble wrap go? A robot at YVR can now answer these questions for you. Most people try their best to recycle and it can often be a confusing process, which is why Vancouver International Airport recently introduced an artificial intelligence (AI) sensor that oversees a cluster of smart waste bins at a central location within the terminal building. This AI, called Oscar, has an artificial intelligence powered camera that automatically identifies recycling from trash and instructs users on whether it belongs in the compost bin, paper bin, or landfill stream bin.

Apple has announced the creation of Daisy, a robot specifically designed to quickly disassemble several different iPhone models and recycle parts that can be used again, the company detailed in a Thursday press release. Daisy is actually a bit of a composite itself--the robot is made up of parts from another recycling robot, Liam, that was created in 2016, the release said. Daisy will be used first in the US and Europe and then expand worldwide. According to Apple's release, Daisy will be able take apart nearly 200 iPhones per hour, pushing the company closer to its goal of ending its reliance on mining for vital smartphone materials like cobalt. From every 100,000 iPhones Daisy disassembles, the release said, Apple will be able to harness about 1 kg of gold, 7.5kg of silver, almost two tons of aluminum, and 11kg worth of certain rare-earth elements and minerals like cobalt, palladium, tungsten, tantalum, and tin.

Apple's got a new robot. You can't buy this'bot, though -- it's only for Apple's use. The robot, named Daisy, takes apart old iPhones so that the valuable materials in the devices, like gold, can be extracted. It's an improved version of "Liam," the recycling robot that Apple revealed in 2016 to take apart iPhone 6 phones. Daisy can disassemble 200 iPhones an hour, Apple said in a press release on Thursday extolling the virtues of its latest droid. And Daisy can take apart nine different versions of the iPhone, a step up from Liam's limited capabilities that only allowed it to dismantle the iPhone 6.

Before getting a second life, metals, plastics, cardboard, and other solid recyclable materials often embark on a long journey that touches two continents. Every day, about 1,500 shipping containers of recycled materials are loaded onto cargo ships in the U.S. and dispatched to China. In fact, since 2007, recyclable waste has been one of the U.S.' main exports to China, a partnership that fueled the Asian nation's manufacturing boom. As China's economy increasingly shifts to services, reducing its dependence on the polluting manufacturing industry, its government is getting more serious about environmental protection. While recycling is obviously beneficial for the environment, practically nobody is perfect at it.

We all know that it's important to recycle, but that's sometimes easier said than done. Luckily, Clarke the robot is here to help. Admit it -- you're not entirely sure how to recycle. With so many different materials in play, how are you supposed to know what needs to be thrown into a landfill and what can be reused? Humans might not be the best at the Three R's (reduce, reuse, and recycle, of course), but another "R" is here to save us -- a robot, affectionately named Clarke.

Somewhere in a Cupertino warehouse, a giant labors with robotic precision, its 29 arms singularly focused on one thing: an iPhone. But instead of putting pieces together, this robot is pulling pieces apart. It disassembles iPhones at the rate of one handset every 11 seconds--less time than it takes you to fish your phone out of an overcrowded bag. Apple calls the machine Liam. The project was kept secret for three years, says Mashable deputy tech editor Samantha Murphy Kelly, who was allowed a sneak preview of Liam in action.

Before turning to the expected round of product announcements at today's Apple event, held at the company's campus in Cupertino, Calif., Apple introduced a technical development that won't be a product anytime soon: Liam, the recycling robot. Apple's vice president of environment, policy, and social initiatives, Lisa Jackson, said that though Apple's track record of reusing iPhones that are exchanged for upgrades is good, the company recognized that eventually, these things can't be reused. Therefore, she indicated, Apple decided to up its recycling game. The company's engineers in Silicon Valley developed a recycling robot, named Liam, that recognizes all the key parts on an iPhone, takes the phone apart, and pulls out the most valuable materials, including cobalt, lithium, gold, copper, silver, platinum, and tungsten. With a team of Liams available to mine phones for precious metals, Jackson announced a free recycling program for iPhones; customers can drop the phones at Apple stores, or print a prepaid mailing label at home. She urged customers to recycle devices in a way that is "safe for data and safe for the planet," and will keep a little Liam and his friends busy.