Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: AI-Driven Recycling Centers for Disadvantaged Communities: Improving Recovery, Safety, and Costs
EPA Contract Number: 68HERC24C0023Title: AI-Driven Recycling Centers for Disadvantaged Communities: Improving Recovery, Safety, and Costs
Investigators: Lamuraglia, Jack
Small Business: KLAW Industries LLC
EPA Contact: Richards, April
Phase: I
Project Period: December 1, 2023 through May 30, 2024
Project Amount: $100,000
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) - Phase I (2024) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
Description:
The recycling industry has seen little technological advancement since the 1980s, continuing to depend on manual labor and basic machinery to address the waste crisis. For decades, municipalities have paid exorbitant tipping fees for inefficient and hazardous sorting methods. There is a pressing need for a new recycling processing system to revolutionize the waste industry and fix the flawed economic model affecting cities across the U.S.
This project has created a proof-of-concept autonomous sorting system, laying the groundwork for a new generation of recycling facilities. KLAW Industries will develop, deploy, and manage this technology to lower municipal tipping fees, moving beyond slow-moving waste haulers. By aligning with the modern waste stream, we can reduce product contamination, cut capital costs, and minimize excessive hauling.
Our primary market includes cities and public works commissioners who are struggling with the difficult choice between paying more for recycling or abandoning the program altogether, a decision that many low-income towns and villages have already made.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
Our technical research aimed to complete two objectives.
- Identification Accuracy of 90% or Higher for Primary Commodities.
- Process 0.5 tons of Recyclables per day from our city.
We achieved these objectives by completing the following milestones.
Milestone 1: Sort Recyclables from Our city.
We received recyclable materials from our city, identified the components of our local recycling stream, and determined ways to optimize our sorting system.
Milestone 2: Label Data Specifically for Resident's of Our city’s Recyclables.
The most common commodity streams in our city defined our primary labels, shown in Table 1. We aim to develop secondary labels through additional research to further sort recyclables when the market size justifies additional commodity streams.
Most Common Labels for our City Recyclables for Milestone 2
| Newspaper #8 | OCC #11 | Mixed Paper #2 | Three-Mix Glass | Tin/Bi-metals | Aluminum |
| PET | HDPE Natural | HDPE Colored | Mixed Plastics (3-7) | PS 11 Corrugated Containers | PS 54 Mixed Paper |
Table 1: KLAW Industries’ Primary Labels for our city.
Milestone 3: Train the System Using Data from Our City for 90% or Higher Accuracy.
We utilized the labeled data from Milestone 2 as training examples to optimize our recycling system. In Milestone 3, we concentrated on identifying the optimal control parameters to maximize accuracy.
Milestone 4: Integrate a Tipping Area and Infeed System at KLAW Industries' Facility.
We increased our infeed capacity to manage recyclables from our city in order to test the system.
Milestone 5: Process 0.5 Tons per day from Our City Using the System.
The technical goal of Milestone 5 was to demonstrate the system's effectiveness in classifying recycled products. We tested the system using recyclables from our city and measured throughput to assess the commercial impacts of our research.
Conclusions:
The system provides a scalable way to identify materials in the recycling stream and bring recycling processing to the local level. By receiving material from our city, we gained a comprehensive understanding of our waste stream. Our next research and commercialization steps for our system are to expand its technical sorting capabilities and grow our base of partners in our local market.
The technical success of recyclable sortation and the economic benefit of localizing recycling present significant commercial opportunities. As the waste stream has evolved, legacy recyclers are ill-equipped to handle these new materials. Currently, many municipalities face tipping fees that are as high as, or even higher than, landfill costs for items collected through single-stream recycling.
During this project, we expanded our partnerships with other local municipalities and recyclers to develop a localized group of customers to bring this technology to market.
The technical research completed throughout this project, along with our pilots, letters of support, and customer interviews, has rapidly advanced our system and strengthened our position in the recycling market. We are now ideally positioned to introduce the next innovations to the recycling industry, building on our company's history in the material processing sector.
SBIR Phase II:
AI-Driven Recycling Centers for Disadvantaged Communities: Improving Recovery, Safety, and CostsThe 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.