AI robots are recycling rubbish faster and better

Emma Keeling meets Peter Hedley and the team at Recycleye, a London-based AI company bringing advanced machine learning to the global waste management industry. Hedley and co-founder Peter Dewulf are former Imperial College London students turned European Patent Office Young Inventors of the year, who are the brains behind Recycleye. Their two-part invention consists of a computer vision system that uses artificial intelligence to accurately identify different types of waste items, and a robotic arm that moves on six axes to autonomously pick out valuable material from a recycling conveyor belt. The aim is to increase the purity, and therefore the value, of recycled waste bales, boosting the financial incentive to recycle. By automating the process using AI, Dewulf and Hedley hope to also increase the proportion of waste that is recycled. With their innovative system already a huge success with clients across Europe and Australia, we find out whether this is the future of recycling.