The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE) Ireland has entered into a partnership with Panda to improve the recycling process of used cartons.
Under this joint effort, ACE Ireland has provided funds for adding a new robotic sorting technology at Panda’s existing materials recovery facility (MRF) in Ballymount, Dublin, Republic of Ireland.
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The new sorting technology at the Ballymount MRF was officially inaugurated by the Irish government’s state minister Ossian Smyth, who also has special responsibility for managing circular economy efforts in the country.
Smyth said: “The creation of a circular economy and the achievement of our ambitious reuse and recycling targets requires strong partnerships and innovative solutions. I’m delighted to be here today at the launch of this new technology, which will improve recycling processes and drive higher recycling rates.”
Panda, a subsidiary of British and Irish waste company Beauparc, will utilise this new AI technology to identify, pick, and sort empty beverage cartons collected from the Irish market.
Once the material is sorted, it will be transferred to ACE’s specialised carton recycling facility in the UK. This facility is operated by recycling company Sonoco Stainland.
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By GlobalDataBeauparc CEO Brian McCabe said: “We receive over 90,000 tonnes of mixed dry recyclable materials into the Ballymount facility per annum from over 400,000 homes, all of which needs to be sorted into different waste streams.
“The installation of this latest generation of robotic sorting technology in Ballymount will allow us to significantly increase the quality of target materials extracted from sorting lines in the MRF.
“We anticipate over 500 tonnes of cartons will be sorted per annum for onward recycling with an expectation that this will further increase as we bed in the new technology.”
The new automated technology has been developed by AI waste robots manufacturer Recycleye and Japanese robotics company Fanuc and will be installed over the existing recycling lines.
It has a capacity of 33,000 picks in a ten-hour timeframe and can scan and detect 28 different classes of materials.
