Feature EverestLabs
helping to improve drinks cans recycling
E
verestLabs, based in Fremont, California, was set up with the purpose of ensuring that businesses benefit from higher recycling rates.
Be it materials recover facilities (MRFs), reclaimers, or packaging manufacturers. Founder and CEO JD Ambati talks about how his tech start-up is using artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic sorters to divert more used aluminium beverage cans from landfill and going into the circular supply chain.
Joining forces with CMI
Last September EverestLabs and the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI), which represents US metal can manufacturers and their suppliers, unveiled a project to bolster recycling rates of aluminium cans at Caglia Environmental, a MRF serving central California. This is the first project of its kind to come out of industrial partnership with CMI. Funded by the CMI’s members Ardagh Metal Packaging and Crown Holdings with a 50% revenue share, the Caglia recycling facility is leasing the AI- enabled operating system for a period of two years. Six months in, and the results
have been very promising. Caglia, which specialises in single-stream recyclables, has significantly increased the collection rate of beverage cans on its last chance line. It is currently capturing some 1,600 cans on a daily basis, equating to a reduction of 1.23 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions weekly. Commenting on the
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metalpackager.com
accuracy of EverestLabs’ AI-powered technology, Ambati said that – for cans – it stands at 90% on the first day of installing the equipment with further fine-tuning done “to get to the north of 95% accuracy”. Asked to explain why Caglia was
chosen for this “test programme”, he said it is a forward-thinking technology-enabled recycling company. “They already had robots from a different company, they know how robots work or don’t work. They’ve experience in this. We told them since they’re losing a lot of material to landfill, here’s an opportunity to collaborate and accomplish two things: one, to show them that there are a lot of materials on a conveyor line that end up in landfill, materials that are of high value to them and CMI. And two, to show them how simple it’s to install our robots and how they can solve their issues effortlessly without any heavy lift.”
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