New Robot Can Identify and Sort Recyclables from Industrial Waste

A Finnish company says it has developed robot technology programmed to identify and sort recyclable materials from construction and demolition debris, an innovation it says could cut industrial recycling costs and keep large amounts of recyclable materials out of landfills. The Recycler robot, designed by a team at Helsinki-based ZenRobotics, uses data collected from visual sensors, metal detectors, weight measurements, and tactile feedback from the robot’s arm to categorize materials from a waste stream on a conveyor belt. And once it identifies recyclable materials — including plastics, concrete, metal, and wood — it is programmed to pull them from the belt and place them in appropriate bins. The technology even recognizes more ambiguous items, such as plywood filled with metal nails, based on their color. In early tests, the technology has identified about 50 percent of recyclable materials. In addition to sorting construction waste, which accounts for about half of the materials buried in U.S. landfills, the company hopes the technology can ultimately be used to sort household waste.