Leading waste management company NEWS (Norse Environmental Waste Services), part of Norse Group, today announced details of its investment in AI-powered sorting at its MRF (Materials Recovery Facility) near Norwich. Retrofitted over a fibre line, the robotic picking installation has been designed to pick valuable missed recyclables including mixed plastic bottles and aluminium cans for recirculation.
Following market analysis, NEWS chose to invest in a robotic picker with Recycleye, a UK-based company bringing AI-powered automation to waste management globally. The investment is intended to enable NEWS, part of the largest LATCO (Local Authority Trading Company) in the UK, to generate more value from the co-mingled material delivered by the 7 Borough, City and District Councils in Norfolk.
The waste-picking robot, known as Recycleye QualiBot®, performs the physical tasks of identifying, picking and placing materials at a consistently more accurate rate than human operatives. The robot operates alongside people, who continue to work in the company’s MRF. The fibre line, situated in a relatively dusty environment, was previously operated by two human pickers who have been redeployed in the facility.
The intelligent robotic picker is powered by an AI computer vision system, which detects individual items by material and object type. The AI system sits on top of NEWS’ existing conveyor belt, providing the MRF manager with total visibility of the waste stream and helping to improve the efficiency and operations of the plant’s sorting processes.
Using dashboards provided as part of the digital Recycleye solution, the NEWS management team can see the compositional analysis of the line, tracking input and outputs to see how waste has been identified and recovered with the robotic solution. This helps the MRF manager to see the nature of the waste being processed, to understand trends and to spot any issues with sorting taking place further back in the facility.
Commenting on the investment, Scott Martin, MRF Representative of the 7 Councils that have a shareholding in NEWS via a joint venture arrangement, said “As a consortium of Councils, we are committed to exploring any opportunities for improving the management of waste and to work with NEWS through its MRF operation in maximising the potential for recycling waste, so we are pleased to see investment of this type as a tangible application of this commitment”.
Of the innovation, Dave Newell, Operations Director at NEWS said “We are excited to test AI and robotics for picking operations at our plant, and the Recycleye QualiBot® solution was the perfect starting point for us due to its ability to be retrofitted quickly and at low cost over our current belt. Investing in innovation is part of our strategic plan to improve our environmental performance and drive growth and we are confident that this new technology will further help us to meet that objective. We are already considering how Recycleye can assist us with the enhanced requirements of the MF Regulations through the identification of materials and product types.”
Tom Harrison, Technical Sales Manager at Recycleye commented “AI-powered robotics are adding value at sites like this one operated by NEWS across Europe. Using robotic automation in waste facilities to pick missed valuables through automated recirculation is a perfect example of how automation is adding value to waste management, all visible and traceable through our customer dashboards. We are proud to work with NEWS to add value in this way in Norfolk”.
Read the story on letsrecycle.com here