Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Real Time Recycling Inventory Aggregation and Management Software
EPA Contract Number: 68HERC23C0026Title: Real Time Recycling Inventory Aggregation and Management Software
Investigators: Simpson, Alando
Small Business: City of Roses Disposal and Recycling, Inc.
EPA Contact: Richards, April
Phase: I
Project Period: December 1, 2022 through May 31, 2023
Project Amount: $98,887
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I (2023) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: SBIR - Water , SBIR - Sustainability , SBIR - Air and Climate , SBIR - Homeland Security
Description:
Real Time Recycling Inventory Aggregation and Management Software (RTR) is a holistic inventory and reporting product for Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs)operating in the construction and demolition sphere. This system will allow MRFs to accurately evaluate inbound waste by weight, recorded from scales in material recovery bins on a processing line, and track recovered materials inventories. Additionally, using a first-in, first-out (FIFO) inventory tracking system, the software confirms the sale of recovered materials to end markets and allows waste generators to track and confirm the end market destination of their recovered materials.
RTR will resolve inaccurate and subjective waste reporting. Industry standard recycling reporting is generated by a visual inspection of arriving waste, prior to any processing. This is problematic for two primary reasons:
- Visual grading of weights is inherently subjective. Internal studies have determined that visual grading is roughly 70% accurate. RTR, in conjunction with adequate scales, will return up to 99% accurate results.
- Because visual grading is completed prior to processing, there is no guarantee that recoverable commodities are sorted and sold to outlets other than landfills and incinerators. RTR will only assign grading percentages to recovered material, ensuring accurate reporting of percentages of waste sent for landfill disposal.
MRFs, the target customer, will be incentivized to utilize our software by charging waste generators a premium for recycling reporting implementing RTR software. Additional financial incentives include the possibility of offering variable disposal pricing to waste generators, based upon percentages of recyclable material in disposed waste. The pricing model will encourage further source separation of waste as recoverability will be maximized with fewer products in the waste stream. Heavily mixed waste loads will be harder to sort and limit the recovered percentage.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
Following the Phase I development period the software has demonstrated that it can do the following:
- Make an API call to the inbound/outbound scale software (AMCS) in five-minute intervals and populate the internal RTR tables with waste load identifier data and heavy/light truck weights.
- Accurately weigh recovered materials and aggregate the weights to customer specific recovery tables.
- Accurately aggregate the weight of residual waste by subtracting recovered weights from the net weight of the waste load.
- Populate facility-wide inventory tables for recovered materials and accurately produce reports for current inventories.
- Accurately debit weights of sold material from facility-wide inventory tables and assign the material sale to a waste generator customer using FIFO.
- Generate recycling reporting for waste generator customers that tracks composition of each individual waste load, aggregated composition over a variety of time periods, and confirmation of material sales amounts and destinations.
Conclusions:
RTR has been successfully implemented at City of Roses Disposal and Recycling's MRF in a test environment using real waste, inventories, and material sales. Captured weights were verified to be correct due to repeated calibration of the material recovery bin scales, as well as confirmation of accurate weights using floor scales. Recycling reporting for the waste generator has been verified to aggregate accurately, as have facility-wide inventory reporting and material sales reporting.
Although narrow in scope and specifically tailored to the current needs of City of Roses Disposal and Recycling, the accurate weight capture and report generation of RTR confirms that the digital infrastructure of the software is functioning as intended and can be altered to serve the needs of other customers. The next phase of development will be targeted at increasing the ability to customize the software to appeal to MRF operators in different markets, as well as adding additional features to help justify the cost of the software license.
After suffering initial setbacks within the original target market (rural and island based MRFs) due to lack of legislation enforcing reporting requirements, City of Roses Disposal and Recycling has opted to pivot to pursuing customers that operate MRFs in urban centers primarily in regions with more robust MRF reporting legislation. Ultimately, while the software is nearly ready for use internally and will soon be advertised to waste generators patronizing City of Roses Disposal and Recycling's MRF, it has been determined that it is far from a commercially viable product in its current state.
Development over the next year will be primarily focused on customization, with an end goal of supporting MRFs using any type of processing line and inbound/outbound scale software. Additional development possibilities include integration with robotic sorters currently offered by a variety of companies. The goal is to incorporate the RTR software into a physical recovery system to further justify the software licensing fees.
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.