Video: MRF LRS Improves Aluminum, HDPE Recovery with CMI-Funded AI Robot | Packaging World

EverestLabs’ RecycleOS AI-based sortation algorithm & robot helps LRS catch mis-sorted aluminum, valuable material can leak into landfill. Revenue generated from the extra capture supports Can Manufacturers Institute can-capture efforts.

Hi everyone. My name is Joy Rifkin, and I'm a sustainability manager here at LRS, and we're at The Exchange Material Recovery Facility (MRF), our newest state-of-the-art facility that sorts recyclables from the city of Chicago and surrounding areas. We're excited to show you our latest investment in EverestLabs, AI robot. This robot is running on our "last chance" [residual] line, and these materials are headed for the landfill. It's able to successfully recycle [HDPE] plastic bottles and aluminum that were not sorted correctly. We're glad that robot isn't running gangbusters speed because that means we did our job. Plastic bottles and aluminum cans are being sorted properly, and this is just recovering anything that didn't fall through the system correctly. This EverestLabs robot uses AI technology to scan the material and then [use suction to catch] the recyclable so they can use properly recovered.

Background: EverestLabs, developer of RecycleOS, what it calls the first AI-enabled operating system for material recovery facilities (MRFs) and recyclers, partnered with LRS, the nation’s fifth largest independent waste diversion, recycling and portable services provider.

With funding support from Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) members Ardagh Metal Packaging and Crown Holdings, LRS installed EverestLabs’ RecycleOS material sorting robot in a flagship MRF it calls The Exchange. The robot resides on the residual line, also called the “last chance” line, to help increase revenue and ensure maximum efficiency, recovery, and recycling of used beverage cans (UBCs). The EverestLabs robot assists in LRS maintaining quality control for a wider system that processes more than 350,000 pounds of recycled aluminum, or approximately 12 million aluminum beverage cans, per month.

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