Robotic recycling techniques on the horizon
Wednesday, March 22, 2017 - 09:19:03
The UK could soon embrace the use of robots to help sort household waste and increase recycling rates automatically without requiring this labour-intensive process to be handled manually, according to the Guardian.
Experts from Finnish tech firm ZenRobotics have demonstrated a system which can pick through waste products and separate recyclable items from one another, handling up to 4,000 pieces per hour thanks to cutting edge scanning tech combined with picking robots. It is hoped that such hardware will eventually be adopted in the UK, although critics argue that it is not yet economical enough to consider.
Robots are already being used in mobile phone recycling, with Apple’s Liam device showcasing its ability to deconstruct used iPhones and make the life cycle of a modern handset more sustainable as a result. In the past many electronic items would simply have been put through a shredder, but the dextrous disassembly which robots can enact automatically is an obvious benefit.
Industry insiders admit that while it is theoretically possible for human workers to handle the process of sorting recyclable materials from household waste, the reality is that this is both fraught with dangers and generally unpleasant. So moving straight to the use of robots makes sense from a number of perspectives.
Of course, it should also be argued that individuals and businesses have a responsibility to sort their recycling themselves before it is collected for processing, rather than requiring all of this work to be carried out at dedicated facilities. Instilling eco-friendly habits in the population takes time and the rise in recycling rates has only been achievable over the course of decades, not overnight.
Because people can sell their old mobile phone to a recycling firm, the understanding that consumer electronics should not simply be dumped along with general waste is spreading. But robots may hold the key to making all waste processing greener.
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