AMP Robotics Launches Automated Secondary Sortation Facilities in Atlanta, Cleveland
May 10, 2022
AMP Robotics, which develops artificial intelligence, robotics and infrastructure for the waste and recycling industry, has opened two new high-diversion production facilities for advanced secondary sortation. The company-owned facilities, located outside of Atlanta and Cleveland, are designed to economically process and aggregate low volumes of difficult-to-recycle mixed plastics, paper, and metals sourced from residue supplied by primary materials recovery facilities (MRFs) and other material providers.
“With the success of the pilot facility we launched last year in Denver, we’ve been working hard to bring online additional facilities powered by our application of AI for material identification and advanced automation,” said Matanya Horowitz, founder and CEO of AMP Robotics. “This secondary sortation model is helping to address the millions of tons of recyclables and billions of dollars worth of material feedstock lost to landfill despite the demand for high-quality recycled content from consumer packaged goods companies and brand owners.”
AMP said the strength of its AI systems makes secondary sortation technically and economically feasible. The AMP Neuron platform recognizes 50 billion objects on an annual basis – which continues to exponentially increase as the company’s installed base expands. WIth the secondary sortation model, AMP said it recovers mixed paper, metals and a portfolio of #1 to #7 plastics in a variety of form factors and attributes with high precision and purity. The company then resells these commodities, including bespoke chemical and polymer blends needed by processors and manufacturers, to end-market buyers. The company said it is continuing to innovate its AI capabilities to identify and recover film and flexible packaging, which often creates operational challenges for MRFs and historically have been complicated to recover and expensive to reprocess into raw materials.
“We’ve had AMP’s AI-guided robotics systems installed since 2019, and they’ve helped us lower labor costs, increase recovery, and boost capacity,” said Joe Benedetto, president of RDS of Virginia. “Now that we’re working with AMP on residue, mixed plastics, and containers for secondary processing, we’re seeing lower disposal costs and a new source of income. Moreover, we’re better fulfilling our commitment to ensuring more recyclables are actually recycled.”
AMP said it plans to introduce additional facilities in the second half of 2022, and seeks relationships with waste management companies to accept or buy residual or secondary materials. The company also said it is looking for strategic partnerships with plastics reclaimers, chemical recyclers, and other plastics manufactures for offtake of recovered plastics.
The company said it has approximately 230 deployments of its AMP Cortex robotic sorting systems in almost 80 facilities across three continents. For more details on the company, visit the AMP Robotics website here.
