Highlighting the plastics industry’s infamous recycling record, London-based Recycleye says it has raised $17m in new funding led by “deep-tech” investor DCVC.
startup claims its recycling collection robots can identify materials “at an unmatched speed of 60 frames per second” and sort them more accurately than humans. Ultimately, the start-up says its technology reduces the “cost of sorting materials.” TechCrunch has reached out to the company for information on its projected cost savings.
Based in Palo Alto, DCVC says its mission is to “multiply the benefits of capitalism for all while reducing its costs.” Climate technology is one of his approaches and a lens through which we can view the environmental cost of capitalism. In the case of plastics, the oil industry has been around for a long time. preached the virtues of plastic recycling, while doubting its economic viabilityin order to sell more virgin plastic.
Each stage of plastic production interrupts the climate and the natural world, from “the extraction and transportation of fossil fuels that are the primary raw materials for plastic, to refining and manufacturing, waste management, and plastic entering the environment,” the International Environmental Law Center wrote in 2019.
Plastic pollution, one of the main drivers of climate change, is also increasing. That’s partly due to deficiencies in “waste management and recycling.” OECD, an intergovernmental body, said last year. The group concluded that someone needs “create a separate and well-functioning market for recycled plastics.”
The problem is: Sorting, melting, and ultimately reusing most of the plastic, which can only recycle a few times — it is much more expensive than buying virgin plastic. METERmuch of the time, we just don’t. Most plastic (about 91%according to the OECD) is not recycled and Single-use plastic production is at an all-time high.
By focusing on speeding up scanning, identifying and sorting used materials, Recycleye is one of many companies trying to fix part of this flawed system with AI. Citing the OECD report, Recycleye said: “Changing this wasteful and environmentally damaging dynamic, seen across a variety of materials, presents a tremendous business opportunity.”
Recycleye says its scanning and machine learning technology “is twice as fast as the industry standard and means that each item is seen on average 30 times as it passes down the conveyor belt, with twice the chance of being identified.” accurately before picking it up”. We’ve reached out to the company for more context on these figures.
Several other investors contributed to Recycleye’s new Series A funding round, including the London-based early-stage investor. fair games capital.
