Robotic trash and recycling sorting.
Robotic trash and recycling sorting.
The scale of waste generation is increasing constantly, and there are great efficiencies to be had in robotic sorting. The job of sorting trash and recycling is highly dangerous and generally merits hazard pay. Utilizing mechanical automation as well as computer vision or AI/ML to increase throughput and purity of recycling centers seems inevitable.
There are some uncertainties in the future of the US waste and recycling processes, as we have lost several longer term relationships with other countries that were paying us for our materials to recycle. It has yet to be seen wether or not the US will enact sufficient policy to keep recycling at the same level of profitability as in the past decade.
