Robotic sorting improves reliability, efficiency and quality of recycling

Evergreen Corp.
, one of the top three producers of food-grade recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) in North America, said it has significantly improved the recycling performance of its factories using artificial intelligence-based bottle sorting robotics
.

In partnership with AMP Robotics, an AI company focused on the waste industry, the recycler installed AI robotic sorting at its Clyde, Ohio facility in April 2021 and its Riverside, California facility in August 2021 line
.

Evergreen has now announced that AMP will also install some robotic sorting lines at its plastic recycling and rPET production site in Albany, NY
.
Once the project is complete, 15 high-speed, high-precision robotic production lines will operate at Evergreen Group's three locations in the United States
.
The installation is scheduled to be completed by mid-2022
.

Omar Abuaita, president and CEO of Evergreen, explained that replacing the previous manual sorting process with high-tech robots is part of a strategic vision to transform not only the company but the entire plastic recycling industry
.

"With demand for rPET at an all-time high, we simply cannot rely on outdated ways of doing business," he said.
"
The automation of sorting lines allows us to support an ever-larger stream of PET recycling, delivering the hundreds of dollars our customers have committed to buying.
10,000 pounds of food-grade rPET and enable a safer and more productive work environment for our teams
.
”

Evergreen is a portfolio company of private equity firm Sterling Group
.
Over the past 12 months, the company has invested more than $200 million in modernization, capacity expansion and acquisitions
.
In addition to the new robotic line, the company is currently expanding rPET capacity at the Evergreen Clyde site
.

Evergreen currently recycles more than 11.
6 billion PET bottles annually, up from 2 billion in 2021
.
The AI-enabled sorting line increases the speed and accuracy of sorting, allowing more contaminants to be picked out of the water stream, leaving high-quality clear and green PET bottles for recycling
.

Evergreen's annual production capacity of food-grade rPET is about 67,000 tons, compared with just 18,000 tons a year ago
.

When the company's expansion at Evergreen Clyde is completed in mid-2022, its rPET capacity will increase to about 99,000 tonnes per year
.