This data-file is a screen of companies using AI for waste-sorting, in order to separate out valuable recyclable materials, from the world’s 2.3 GTpa of solid municipal waste. Ten companies, mostly founded in the past decade, are now at an inflection point and seem to be scaling up rapidly.
This data-file is a screen of companies using AI in order to separate out valuable recyclable materials from the world’s 2.3GTpa of municipal solid waste — especially machine vision, cameras, hyperspectral cameras and robotic arms.
The landscape of companies using AI for waste-sorting is constellated with companies that were founded in the last 5-10 years, and are now at an inflection point, with around 3,250 AI-enabled waste-sorting facilities deployed by 2025. We have tried to estimate deployments by company in the data-file.
For example, GreyParrot was founded in 2019, is headquartered in London and has raised around $35M of total funding at the time of writing. Its Flagship product has been the GreyParrot Analyzer. c200 Greyparrot Analyzer units are now deployed across 20 countries, having identified 100bn waste items, and having been adopted by large waste management companies such as Biffa and Suez.
AI-enabled waste sorting facilities are also compared and contrasted in the data-file, based on case studies and details reported by the companies. The average system can pick c60 items from a conveyor belt per minute, separating into one of 65 categories, and claims a c1-year payback period on deployments.
Most of the companies in this data-file are private, although we did come across one listed company that is focused on recycling systems and AI-enabled robotics; and two other companies that were acquired by/remain owned by US and Japanese industrials companies.
Seeing the pace of progress in this space has led us to wonder whether there will be an inflection in waste management, with implications across gas, power, metals and oil markets, as explored in our recent 17-page report, which contains notes on all of these companies as well.