The world is facing an urgent waste crisis, with trash set to explode to a staggering 3.8 billion metric tons by 2050. While the dream of using less is ideal, the reality is we’re far from cutting down our consumption. The pressure is on and that’s where innovation steps in.

Recycling Challenges and Solutions

In this regard, recycling has even greater significance. But it does have its challenges. For instance, humans tend to combine items that can be recycled with items that cannot. Examples of obvious mistakes for recycling are dirty yogurt cups or tossing plastic into the aluminum bin. Such human error incurs extra costs for recycling because someone will have to manually sort out these wrong items.

To address this, companies like Glacier are building automated systems to improve recycling. Glacier, a six-year-old company, uses robotic arms powered by computer vision to identify over 30 different materials. Their robots have already been deployed in major cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Phoenix, and Seattle.

$16 Million to Expand Glacier’s Robot Fleet

It has been confirmed that Glacier raised $16 million in Series A funding as it plans to expand its fleet of robots. This funding round was co-led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund and witnessed participation by AlleyCorp, Alumni Ventures, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Cox Exponential, Elysium, New Enterprise Associates, One Small Planet, Overlap Holdings, Overture, VSC Ventures, and Working Capital Fund.

Challenges Faced by Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs)

Co-founder and CEO Rebecca Hu-Thrams of Glacier pointed out that Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) are under heavy pressure. Governments are demanding that more waste be recycled, but MRFs are having difficulty putting enough workers onto the sorting lines. Worker turnover is extremely high, with some MRF operators needing to hire for a sorting position five times a year. Hu-Thrams remarked

“Would you rather stand at a conveyor belt and sort through people’s trash, or would you rather be lifting boxes in an air-conditioned warehouse? That kind of underscores the dilemma that a lot of our customers are facing.”

Glacier’s Robot Offerings and Maintenance Solutions

Glacier offers its robots through outright purchases or a lease-to-own model. They also provide training, spare parts, and optional maintenance packages for MRFs that prefer not to handle repairs themselves. The company also offers a data product, allowing MRFs, consumer product companies, and government agencies to access valuable insights about waste streams. For instance, an MRF can track where valuable aluminum cans are being lost to landfills, while a company or regulator could audit waste to ensure recyclable materials are being processed properly.

How Glacier’s Robots Improve Recycling Efficiency

With a larger fleet of robots, Glacier hopes recycling rates will improve. Robots can work faster and more accurately, distinguishing between recyclables and trash more effectively than humans.

Areeb Malik, Glacier’s CTO and co-founder, Said

“Every time we send people to audit our AI systems, the people just do so much worse, AI is getting really powerful, being able to distinguish beyond what people can even notice.”