When you put your recycling into the bin and move it to the curb, your hauler brings it to a local Material Recovery Facility (MRF). These recycling centers must do everything possible to ensure that the recycling stream being processed remains uncontaminated.
For recycled items to be sellable, they have to be of premium quality. That means no stuck-on foods, no harder-to-recycle plastics mixed in with easily recycled ones, and no Pyrex glass mixed in with the rest of the glass.
People want to do their best when it comes to recycling. This often means that we “wishcycle.” When we’re not 100% certain if we can recycle something, we toss it in the bin anyway and hope it is or that the staff will figure it out.
The reality is that all the recyclables you and other households in your district send to the MRF must be processed. It used to be processed by hand by workers standing over fast conveyor belts. They had to stand in place, identify, and grab the incorrect items. Imagine doing that all day for $19.95 per BLS information. It’s hard, tedious work performed in a noisy, dirty, hazardous facility.
The shift to robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) is essential for accurate, safer sorting. Thanks to technological advancements like AI, computer vision, and high-speed robotic arms, MRFs are becoming more than facilities for sorting trash for recycling; they’re becoming automated smart factories that can make recycling faster and better.
Using Computer Vision and Robotic Arms in MRFs
In some MRFs, both historically and today, trucks deliver loads of recyclables to the sorting center. Bucket loaders load a bunch of recycled items onto a conveyor belt where they’re sorted.
One way to do this was by using high-powered fans to blow paper items into collection bins. Magnets pulled the metal items. Glass and plastic were sorted in water tanks using sink-float properties (plastic floats and glass sinks). Workers stood along the conveyor belt to grab items that didn’t belong, such as plastic bags, food-encrusted boxes, or wet cardboard.
If there are too many non-recyclable items, the line is stopped, and sometimes an entire load goes to the trash due to contamination. It ended up being wasteful.
Today’s computer vision, AI, and robotic arms sort faster and more accurately than human workers. Computer vision identifies items, and AI can analyze a plastic’s composition and determine its purity rating. Once identified, robotic arms quickly pick and sort materials at up to 100 picks per minute. This is more than twice as fast as a trained sorter.
Offering Career Advancement Opportunities
People worry about AI and robotics taking jobs. When management embraces this technology, jobs shift to technical roles that provide career advancement opportunities.
MRFs tend to deal with severe labor shortages. People don’t want to work in that type of environment. Robots support workers by filling those empty roles.
The people who were manual line sorters move to quality control roles. Some move into the technicians and maintenance teams working on the AI and robotic programming, control, and maintenance. Others become experts in data analysis.
Making Waste and Recycling Safer for Today’s Workers
While MRFs now have equipment that sorts recyclables faster and with greater precision, workers are safer. In 2018, a study found that upwards of 1,484 needlestick injuries affected MRF workers each year. You also face dangers like slip-and-fall accidents from liquid spills on the floor, broken glass, sharp can lids, and battery-related fires from improperly recycled lithium batteries.
Because of these hazards, MRFs can be a dangerous work environment. AI is particularly effective at identifying small electronic devices, vapes, and loose batteries in all of the cans, jars, paper, and cardboard. As soon as AI spots a hazard, a robotic arm picks it up and moves it to a fireproof container. It’s safer for the workers and helps prevent fires that impact entire neighborhoods.
AI is also adept at identifying plastic bags before they tangle and jam equipment. Instead of having to stop the line and untangle plastic from gears and other equipment, AI and robotic arms remove them to a trash container.
Empowering Communities With Real-Time Data
Earlier, we mentioned that some MRF workers shift their roles to data analysis. This is an important role as it can help trash and recycling haulers make crucial changes to their processes.
Every item that’s recycled is scanned, identified, and logged by the AI system. It offers insights into where wishcycled items are coming from. It can help identify what items are being recycled properly and where consumers are struggling. This empowers a waste district where they need to focus their educational programs.
If one HOA has a high rate of dirty pizza boxes, the waste management company can go to the HOA and ask to schedule a community event for residents to attend and get merchandise while
Scaling Current MRFs Without Being Unaffordable
One of the biggest hurdles has been affording robotics and computer vision technology without incurring massive costs. The cost of this technology is great, which can be hard for small municipalities.
Instead of purchasing an entire suite of new technology, drop-in, modular robotic units. They fit over existing conveyors and are installed in a day or two rather than weeks or months. It reduces the sticker shock for taxpayers or people within a municipality. MRFs gain the benefits of the technology without frustrating their customers.
Recycling Habits Consumers Need to Embrace
While your MRF looks into robotics, AI, and automation that make sorting faster and more efficient, it’s not just up to them. You need to do your part, too.
- Clean Your Bottles, Jars, and Cans: Use hot water and dish soap to clean out stuck-on food, grease, and sauce from jars. Never recycle a jar that is still half-full of moldy jelly.
- Make Smart Purchases: Don’t purchase something new just because it seems better. Ask yourself whether you really need a new smartphone a year after you bought your latest one. If so, make sure you take advantage of trade-in offers that refurbish your phone for someone else to use.
- Recycle Properly: Use Recycle Nation’s AI tool to verify that the item you want to recycle is accepted in curbside containers.
- Reuse or Donate as Much as You Can: Before recycling the stack of cardboard boxes piling up, try to reuse or donate them. Clean, dry baby food jars are ideal for storing screws, nuts, and bolts. You might have a community member looking for moving boxes or a gardener who uses shredded cardboard in their garden beds.
When you do as much as you can, manufacturers change their packaging and offer take-back programs, and MRFs speed up and accurately process recyclables, a change takes place. It’s the key to reclaiming raw materials and protecting the environment from an unmanageable amount of trash.
Recycle Nation is with you as the nation works hard to make recycling easier. Use our search tools to find places to drop off your unused or broken items and keep them out of the trash.
