UK AI startup Greyparrot bagged a strategic tie-up with recycling giant Bollegraaf
The seasoned supplier of MRFs (Material Recovery Facilities) and "turnkey" recycling systems, which was founded as a baler machinery manufacturer in 1961, has been dabbling in AI in the past few years, creating a revolutionary testing facility in its native Netherlands in 2021 and hiring an in-house AI team to work on incorporating AI analytics with its reuse and recycling machinery, which has resulted in some commercial rollouts. Grey Parrot, a London-based computer vision startup founded in 2019 (and a TC Disrupt battlefield alum), has invested almost five years in creating and implementing AI to municipal waste disposal procedures to gather what it calls "waste intelligence" — aka data on discarded plastics and other items.
This is crucial for increasing the standard of the items that recyclers can sell. The technology can also be used to extract valuable (i.e. recyclable) items from mixed/contaminated garbage collections that would otherwise wind up in a landfill or burnt. The second major piece of Greyparrot's aim to use AI to reduce the world's garbage issue through faster and more effective recycling is to transition from data producer to decision-maker — as the AI engine that drives sorting and recovery technology to be more efficient. This is also crucial since the globe continues to generate more (rather than less) waste, emphasizing the need for more intelligent waste management so that our societies do not drown in a mounting mound of trash.
