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ROBOTICS FOR

RECYCLING

PROPOSAL FOR AN ROBOTISED MUNICIPAL WASTE SORTING PLANT

The objective for this 'robotics for recycling' proposal is to develop


an economically exploitable robotized pilot plant model, that can sort most
of the municipal waste stream. The plant is proposed to be fitted with new
robotic systems specifically developed for recycling.

The pilot plant would implement


existing ‘municipal waste robotics
for recycling’ technologies that appeared on the market only very recently. That
is namely with the MAX-AI, a 60 picks a minute artificial intelligence robot.
An municipal waste sorting line with robotics is smaller than the industry
standard optical sorting machines.

Robotics Optical sorting

At present there are no municipal waste


sorting plants that employ solely robotics
system to separate municipal waste, even
though several MAX AI robotics modules have
been implemented as complementary tools in
existing plants this year. Entire plants using
only robotics to sort waste is solely provided
by ‘Zen robotics’, but their plants only sort
demolition waste and do not sort municipal
waste.
A consortium in the U.S. funded by the carton
council; developed a
new spider MAX-AI robot during a pilot project in 2016-2017 1. The developed
Max-AI robot, has phenomenal speed; being able to pick 60 items a minute
with a payback period of one year. 2 The Max-AI is now being i mplement in
the first commercial plant in Minnesota 3. T he Max-AI is manufactured and
owned by BHS 4 - Bulk Handling Systems. T he Max-AI spider recycling robot
licensed t heir ‘Sadako AI’ software 5 from B arcelona’s ‘Sadako technologies’
6
. Sadako technologies has also developed the ‘Wall-B’ an “Scara robot using
compressed air suction to pluck things from the belt” 7 that’s been imple-
mented in three commercial plants. 8

There are also other research and development projects attempting to


implement robotic systems in municipal 9 waste sorting plants. These
are: UNSW , UNWS Smart Centre 10, Conestoga

1 https://www.amprobotics.com/single-post/2017/03/22/AMP-Robo-
tics-Partners-with-Carton-Council-and-Alpine-to-Make- Carton-Recycling-More-Efficient
2 https://www.amprobotics.com
3 https://www.amprobotics.com/single-post/2017/08/29/AMP-Robotics-announces-a-second-recycling-robot-using-
artificial-intelligence-is-being-installed-to-recover-food-and-beverage-cartons
4 http://www.bulkhandlingsystems.com
5 http://www.sadako.es/?p=2044&lang=en
6 24 who has previously obtained an SME instrument to fund the research
7 https://www.fastcompany.com/3052355/once-robots-are-sorting-the-recycling-the-economics-all-change
8 https://www.fastcompany.com/3052355/once-robots-are-sorting-the-recycling-the-economics-all-change
9 https://phys.org/news/2014-11-robots-e-waste.html
1 0 2 8 http://smart.unsw.edu.au/research-end-end-micro-recycling-using-intelligent-robots-close-e-wast e-loop
college 11, Project LIAM 12 and DTI 13.

The proposed project intends to integrate the newly developed robotics


technologies, work on improving them and prepare them for an entire
commercial solution in new plants.
The proposed project relates to the innovation program in the manner of an
eco- innovation, to produce an ‘best of practise’ industrial readiness solution
contributing to the ‘raw materials challenge’ by generating a sustainable
supply of raw materials for industry.
The relevant TRL level for ‘robotics for recycling’ technologies has been shown
by the prototypes build by Sadako and BHS-Nihot. Having built technologies
with a TRL, level 9-7 with the “actual system proven in an operational
environment” albeit not yet with a competitive manufacturing price.

Robotics technologies first emerged in recycling industry in 1994-2002; then


developed by Antoine Bourely at the optical sorting company; Pellenc st: In
2000 Pellenc st however found “air jets to be more efficient; a bit less pure,
but much more rapid.” Mr Bourely’s comments for ‘robotic recycling’
technologies are

11 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/e-recycling-technology-innovators-what-i-learned-from-rafael-r eveles
12 http://mashable.com/2016/03/21/apple-liam-recycling-robot/#TMYt494aF5qX
https://www.dti.dk/specialists/robots-with-super-senses-to-sort-waste-for-recycling/36763 http://innosort.teknolo-
gisk.dk/aktiviteter.aspx
13 http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/smeinst-11
-2016-2017.html
that they; do not see a future in recycling robotics due to slower production
speeds. Pellenc st states its optical sorting machines have “an throughput
of 150,000 objects an hour”3 and suggests “A key lesson was: use only
non-contact technologies, to ensure industrial speed.” 14

There are many innovations to be made in robotics recycling technologies


including: non contact technologies using vacuum air tubing, adaptable
grabbing systems, inspection systems, plant set up, machine combination,
and of course increasing grabbing speeds. Another key difference is that one
robotic arm can separate/collect up six types of waste, whereas an optical
conveyor belt can only sort two types of waste and is much bigger.

The existing Max-AI, can inspect “PET bottles, PET thermoform,


HDPE-Natural, HDPE-Color, polypropylene, mixed plastics, aluminium,
mixed paper, cardboard, residue, black plastics, aseptics/cartons” and with
its air suction system it can sort “recyclable containers & small residue in
either quality control or recovery positions” 15

14 http://www.pellencst.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Pellenc-Selective-Technologies1.pdf
15 Brochure Max-AI
Ambition

The optical sorting industry


firms16 that did trials in 1994 and
2002, found that optical sorting
could function faster and at lower
costs than the developed robotics
could. Optical sorting uses a air-jet
ejection system to blow two
different categories of wastes in
varying distances per category. In
plants several optical sorting
machines are usually set up in
series. Optical sorting is ideal for
sorting coloured plastics,
separating two sources or for
removing impurities.

Optical sorting machines inspect materials by colour reflection and 3D shape,


usually with multiple optical sorting machines set up in series to remove any
impurities. To sort highly varied waste streams, optical sorting machines are
not a hundred percent accurate, might have difficulty blowing some objects in
varying distance and are high cost, however are able to operate economically
at high conveyor belt speeds. For separating papers from plastics an plant
installed by Pellenc St states, the plant can separate an phenomenal 12,000
kilos an hour 17.

A robotics system however might be economically superior to optical sorting


system when sorting a large multitude of materials present in bulk non
treated municipal waste such as tissues, papers, drinking cartons, organic
waste, glass colours, metal, aluminium, plastics PET, PE, PVC, PS, electronics
and the quality levels thereof.

16 One of the largest firms in the optical sorting industry Pellenc ST provided this information, and was
defiantly not interested in shifting its manufacturing model or supply model to supplying robotics systems.
17 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kt_OgiMpjo 0.22
Due to the complex variation of contents present in municipal waste, using
robotics could become economically competitive, making ‘
robotics for recycling’ simpler, more compact, more consistent, higher quality
production, durable and accurate with an double verification system.

The most advanced municipal waste sorting/recycling plants on the market


today, employ a large multitude of complex large optical sorting machines
connected by multiple conveyor belts and often requires final manual sorting
techniques. 18 An robotics plant on the other hand would use only compact
robotics; considerably reducing plant size and complexity.

18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCYtbN-iGLM http://www.machinexrecycling.com/products/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kt_OgiMpjo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFwAAAz5r_8
http://www.max-ai.com/bhs-build-advanced-recycling-system-south-carolina/

The ‘robotics for recycling’ solution provides a completely new approach to


recycling municipal waste, that if economically superior in niches, it could be
disruptive technology. The ambition is to build an economic model with fast
return, by using a combination of only robotic systems to sort waste: for
distributed and smaller plants, differing from the central large fast plants
today.
Objectives

The successful project outcome would be a company made up of various


industrial partners that can most economically set up; niche
robotized municipal waste sorting plants for the municipal and the private
investment sector.

The main objectives of the proposal are:

1. On the pilot premises, integrate the initial system with robotics, vision and
collection equipment.

2. To develop inspection technologies that can accurately identify all municipal


waste items on the conveyor belt. It is the intend to develop an inspection
system that uses a combination of tools: an X-ray scanner to provide an 6 colour
atomic structure to determine material and quality, sonar and conductive
sensors for positioning and 3D imaging for gravity referencing, in addition and in
synergy with the imaging technologies incorporated into the MAX-AI.

3. To develop an entire continuously operating plant model with automated


sensors and AI technology, with a central system that operates all components
in real time and in synergy.

4. Once objectives one to three have been achieved and shown niche economic
advantages over a standard larger optical sorting municipal plant; it is the
objective to commercialize and offer the entire solution to existing manual
sorting centre’s, waste treatment companies, municipalities and local investors.

The return of investment on robotized plant will determine the projects impact,
if able to provide an above market returns model, it could attract competitors
and associate franchise investors.
Methodology

Activity one consists of first developing the digital CAD model of the plant and
then using that CAD model for the construction of the actual research plant, to
install it with: working Max-AI robotics modules, conveyor belts, vision
systems, x-ray scanner vision systems, robotic computer systems, operating
software, remote access systems and collection systems, where the project
will move from concept to laboratory.

Activity two will consist of developing the optimal sorting solution that can
sort the entire municipal waste stream, using only a combination of robotic
systems, grabbers, linear motion, bag cutter and inspection technologies. With
5 max AI’s 30 different types of content can be selected, limited to: the
material, grabbing shape and positioning of the item. With an x-ray scanning
and conductive sensors other material can be scanned such as organics,
different types of metal, wood, electronics, and different quality categories 19
can be classed.

Activity three can start when the entire municipal waste stream can be sorted
and the robotized plant shows there is an economic investment niche for
smaller, simpler, less capacity, decentralized plants. Activity three will consist
of developing a replicable franchise model, establishing: municipal license
applications, EPR reward claiming procedure, personnel tasks, managing daily
operations, continuous operation, managing supply channels,

19 10 some bottles can be contaminated with liquid still inside; cans can have cigarette filters or other contents
inside. Paper and aluminum can be contaminated with organics. It might be able to detect this using an x-ray scan
or by the increase in energy usage (weight) when lifting a standard item.
transport logistics, managing sales channels, optimizing the plant design,
components and functioning.
Activity four consists of the initial commercialization of the replicable plant done
by the ‘new consortium firm’ owned by the participating consortium: whose core
business will be bringing the whole system solution of a ‘automated robotized
100% municipal waste sorting plant’, onto the investment market. The pilot
plants ‘proof of concept’ will be used to attract offers to install new plants, from
local private investors 20 and municipalities 21.
Activity five will consist of marketing and commercializing the project by setting
up and managing new commercial plants. This will include working with local
municipalities to select plant locations and provide guidance with schemes such
as the EDRF 22

Relation to an innovation programme


The proposal relates to several objectives of the an countries innovation
program, including the aspect of it being an new proposal.

20 European Investment bank, local infrastructure investments, angel investors, local investment banks, and
crowd equity investors will be targeted by writing the neighbors a letter with the investment opportunity to buy
equity in new plants, in some cases potentially funding the plant before it is constructed.
21 “The municipality has the responsibility for the collection of household municipal waste”
22 P15 Uitvoeringsprogramma VANG - Huishoudelijk Afval 14 https://www.fi-compass.eu/esif/erdf P7 Uitvoe-
ringsprogramma VANG - Huishoudelijk Afval“the motivation of citizens, the creation of knowledge, facilities for
waste separation, is an important task for municipalities.”
Data management plan
The proposed project will work with existing technologies and implement TRL
9 technologies that are already working. The Max-AI can identify a wide range
of materials and can ‘air suction’ grab “recyclable containers & small residue in
either quality control or recovery positions”.

It will be requested for the Max-AI to be operational with the software so that
optimum combinations can be found with other robotic system to sort the
entire stream.

Ownership of the consortiums


projects results
The proposed project will set up a ‘new consortium’ firm whose core business
will be setting setting up new municipal waste robotized plants 34.

Business plan
There are significant returns to be obtained from sorting municipal waste:
these are EPR – extended producer responsibility rewards, resale value and
the revenues received from municipalities for handling the municipal waste
Revenues from established EPR rewards

The financial return for the investor or municipality operating the robotized
sorting plant should arise in part from existing ‘EPR rewards – extended produ-
cer responsibility rewards’: in the Netherlands the EPR reward scheme is regu-
lated by ‘Nedvang’ who allocated the EPR rewards to support municipalities in
reaching waste recycling rate targets 23 whom in turn pay recycling businesses
to sort non treated ‘household packaged waste’ into upgraded to be further
recycled content. Nedvang provides financial rewards, per 1000 K.G. or 1 ton of
sorted household waste, ranging from 0.7 cents per K.g. to 76 cents per k.g of
recycled municipal waste: for Paper carton A - 46.78 Euros per ton, carton B –
7.31 Euros per ton, Glass fur - 46.78 Euros per ton, Glass colour separated –
58.48 Euros per ton, plastics – 756 Euros per ton, Metal packaging – 70.17 Euros
per ton, drinking cartons - 398 Euros per ton.

23 https://www.nedvang.nl/uploads/20170411_Vergoedingen_sheet.pdf
The established EPR rewards, are financed by an EPR tax charged to produ-
cers of household packaged products. In the Netherlands “Afvalfonds verpak-
kingen” charges the EPR fees to producers for bringing household packaged
product onto the national marketplace, they charge producers the following:

national marketplace, they charge producers the following: glass - 56 Euros


per ton, paper - 22 Euros per ton, plastics - 640 Euros per ton, biodegradable
plastics - 20 Euros per ton, aluminium - 20 Euros per ton, other metals 20
Euros per ton, wood 20 euros per ton, average tariff – 770 Euros per ton,
drinking cartons - 180 Euros per ton, deposit bottles - 20 Euros per ton,
plastics without deposit – 750 Euros per ton, expressed in Euros per kilogram:
https://afvalfondsverpakkingen.nl/verpakkingen/alle-tarieven

Similar EPR scheme regulators in other EU countries are; DSD Duales system Deutschland 24 -
Germany, Fost plus - Belgium and

24 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oylK48Y1xDc
others 25, these organizations manage national EPR regulations and are
members of EXPRA 26- an organization that deals with producers of household
packaged items. A household packaging producer that “signs a contract with an
EXPRA member becomes exempt from its own responsibility to take back and/or
recycle used packaging material within the scope of the functioning of the
programme” 27 and gets to place a recycling "Green Dot" 28 trademark logo on
their packaging. The producers of packaged waste do however pay EPR taxes to
members of EXPRA such as Nedvang, who in turn would “ensure the recovery and
recycling of packaging waste is done in the most economically efficient and
ecologically sound manner.” 29

Sorted waste resale value revenues

A large quantity of household waste consists of obsolete plastic packaging, in


different hard and mainly soft polymer types. When all types plastic packaging
are collected together, the different

25 The current members of EXPRA are Fost Plus (Belgium), Ecopack (Bulgaria), Green Dot Cyprus, EKO-KOM
(Czech Republic), Valorlux (Luxembourg), Greenpak (Malta), CONAI (Italy), Eco-Rom Ambalaje (Romania),
ENVI-PAK
(Slovakia), EcoEmbes (Spain), Nedvang (the Netherlands), Green Dot Norway, Öko Pannon (Hungary), TMIR
(Israel), CEVKO (Turkey), Herrco (Greece) and PAKOMAK (Macedonia). http://www.expra.eu/en/about/faqs
26 https://www.expra.eu
27 http://www.expra.eu/en/about/faqs The payment of EPR taxes enables producers to evade “ Verpakkingen-
besluit ” that makes companies responsible for the collection of their produced packaging. S inds 1 januari 2006 is
het Besluit Beheer Verpakkingen en Papier en Karton (het ‘Verpakkingenbesluit’) van kracht. Dit besluit maakt
bedrijven verantwoordelijk voor de organisatie en kosten van de inzameling en recycling van hun verpakkingsaf-
val. Hiertoe is Stichting Nedvang opgericht.
28 "Green Dot" trademark and focuses its work on the protection and promotion of this symbol. http://www.ex-
pra.eu/en/about/faqs
29 http://www.expra.eu/en/about/faqs 43 PET, PE, Bottles, PS, PP, PVC and other.
all types plastic packaging are collected together, the different
typesofplasticwaste4 3 stillneedtobesortedfurtherintothe various types of
polymers categories to become a further recyclable market product, this can
done through optical sorting and costs around 200-300 Euros per ton – against
the EPR revenues of 756 Euros per ton received by the municipality. With a
robotics system capable of separating different types of plastics directly, the
EPR rewards can be obtained directly, in addition to higher plastic value resale
revenues. Other recyclable materials like paper: 47 E and metal: 70 E, provide
lower EPR rewards, they however shouldn’t need sorting first and provide a
higher resale value of around 100 E per ton based on mainly fluctuating Chine-
se market prices.

Revenues received for taking in municipal waste.

Gateway fees at disposal centres for landfilling and incinerating collected


municipal waste fluctuate around 50-150 Euros per ton. When municipal waste
is supplied at the sorting centre, an equivalent of a 100 Euros per ton - 10 cents
per kilogram could be charged to the municipal waste collection company for
disposal costs, upon delivering the municipal waste.
Work packages
Work package 1: Research facility
premises equipment simulation, supply
and construction

Work package one firstly consist of building the digital simulation of the
concept plant: establishing the plant layout, from the entry point to the
finalresaleprocessing, 74 thiscanbedoneby mmi.rwth-aachen and the
participating system integrator.
With the design plan for the plant, the project can move from concept to
laboratory, procuring the components, location and premises where the
robotics systems can be set up by the system integrator Rovimatica .

Digital plant construction


Potential consortium partner: Institut für mensch maschine interaction,
mmi.rwth- aachen .de can digitally construct the research plant and
replicable virtual pilot plant.

Research premises location


Potentialconsortiumpartner 76 :CentreTerre&Pierre,Ctp.be can
potentially make two halls available. CTP has experience in in recycling
projects and technologies. It is also possible to select anotherpremises,
fittedforthedesignoftheplant,location 77 and rental price.
It is also an option to find a new plot of land provided by an
municipality, whereon a new plant can be built.

Conveyor belt supplier

Geppert-band Gmbh Supply of four straight conveyor belts components,


4 conveyor belt corners and 1 entry point

System integrator

Rovimatica S.L. rovimatica.com, has considerable experience in setting up robo-


tized lines and has worked with several robotics systems.

Robotics

BHS 5 MAX-AI robots

Bag cutter system

Niholt, or Forrec standard bag cutting system


20 Pottinger storage containers with press
Supply of containers, lease or purchase

2 transport trucks for Pottinger


Supply of trucks, lease or purchase

Potential Municipalities

Grandlyon.com Smart city berlin Smart city Utrecht


Vosges Effizienz-dortmund.de Future city Glasgow
Grenoble-isere .com Andalucia smart city

Technology commercialization partner

Stamtech industrial research stamtech.com has experience in


commercializing demolition waste robotics for recycling projects. Stamtech will
pursue international sales channels for installing new robotised recycling
plants.
Conclusion
Optical sorting has proved to be a very productive and adequate instrument for
the high speed sorting of two streams per machine; however, for separating an
entire waste stream as complex as municipal waste, other instruments may be
more economically effective. In particular a robotics plant is smaller and
simpler by a multitude.
The sorted contents produced from todays ‘best available ‘plant’ technique’
would be different than the produced quality and variety that would be
produced by robotised plants. For investors to economically set up new local
‘final recycling processing’ plants they require a supply from sorting centres
that is; good quality, large quantity, well priced and regular. The robotised
sorting plant should enable higher quality content to be delivered, potentially
attracting innovative new ‘best available ‘final recycling processing’
techniques’ locally. If the entire model’s technology proves to be economically
disruptive, the market can be scaled rapidly by the ‘new consortium firm’ and
new competitor’s; whom would provide decentralized robotised
plants for investors.

Municipal waste compared to business waste is the most complex waste


stream to manage with the lowest recycling
rate. S timulating new private and public investments in the sorting
infrastructure is one of the most effective ways to improve resource efficiency
and conserve natural resources, it can make the community as a whole
self-sufficient in waste treatment. “Only a limited share (43%) of the municipal
waste generated in the Union was recycled, with the rest being landfilled (31%)
or or incinerated (26%).” 30 Warranting the market capacity for new municipal
waste sorting investments. “Municipal waste constitutes approximately
between 7 and 10% of the total waste generated in the Union; 31 however, this
waste stream is amongst the most complex ones to manage” 32.

30 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52015PC0595&from=EN 31 http://ec.eu-
ropa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Municipal_waste_statistics
32 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52015PC0595

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