My Recycler Takes $17 Million, Calling Plastic Crisis ‘Huge Business Opportunity’ • TechCrunch

Image Credits: Recycling

Highlighting the plastics industry’s dismal record in recycling, London-based Recycleye said it had raised $17 million in new funding led by “deep tech” investor DCVC.

The startup claims that recycling robots can sort materials at an “unmatched 60 frames per second” and sort them more accurately than humans can. Ultimately, the startup says the technology will reduce “the cost of sorting materials.” TechCrunch reached out to the company for information about the proposed cost savings.

Based in Palo Alto, DCVC says its mission is to “multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its costs.” Climate technology is one area of ​​focus and one lens through which we see the damage done in the capitalist environment. In the case of plastics, the oil industry has long preached the virtues of plastic recycling while questioning the economic viability of selling more virgin plastics.

Every stage of plastic production disrupts the climate and the natural world, from “extracting and transporting the fossils that are the primary feedstock of plastic, refining and manufacturing, from waste disposal, to plastic entering the environment,” the center said. He wrote for International Environmental Law in 2019.

Plastic pollution – a major driver of climate change – is also on the rise. This is due in part to deficiencies in “waste disposal and recycling,” the OECD, an intergovernmental body, said last year. The group concluded that it needs someone Create a separate and well-functioning market for recycled plastics.

The problem is: Sorting, melting, and ultimately reusing most of the plastic—that’s all you can do. To be reused only twice – It is more expensive than buying virgin plastic. MMost of the time, we simply don’t. Most plastic (about 91%, per OECD) is not recycled and Single-use plastic production is at an all-time high.

Focusing on speeding up inspections, identifying and separating used materials, Recycley is one of several companies trying to fix part of this broken system with AI. Citing the OECD report, Recycleye said, “Changing this wasteful and environmentally damaging dynamic, which is seen in a variety of materials, offers a huge business opportunity.”

Recyclye says its machine learning and scanning technology is “twice as fast as the industry standard and means each item is seen an average of 30 times as it passes through the conveyor belt, giving it twice the chance of being correctly identified before being picked.” We reached out to the company to get more context on these figures.

A number of other investors, including London-based early-stage investor Playfire Capital, also participated in Recycleye’s new Series A funding round.