Carnegie Mellon University researchers created a robot that takes apart old electronics to remove the recyclable and valuable materials.
They hope to use the robot, which can quickly and efficiently disassemble e-waste, to reduce the amount of electronics in landfills. E-waste is notorious for contributing to pollution and planet-heating gases.
As WPXI Channel 11 Pittsburgh reported, the robot can take apart electronics in seconds. Doing so manually would take a person much longer because of the dozens of screws.
The robot uses kinetics to quickly punch out the screws so e-waste products can be recycled faster.
Recycling e-waste is profitable because of the gold, silver, aluminum, plastic, and other valuable materials contained inside. Many of these materials can be used to make new electronics.
This recycling process could help reduce the price of new electronics and make high-demand products more affordable.
Senior systems scientist Matt Travers worked on the e-waste recycling robot for years and collaborated with Rubicon Robotics.
"It's the idea that I'm taking plastic out of my Samsung TV and eventually using that same plastic to go back into a Samsung TV," Travers said. "The plastics, metal, a lot of things, critical materials, things like gallium and indium that you find in the thin film transistors and the actual screen on the flat panel displays. There is no domestic source for them."
This robotics development is significant because it could reduce landfill waste and save consumers money on new electronics.
E-waste is one of the fastest-growing forms of global waste, and it often contains toxins that harm the environment. Meanwhile, the loss of valuable materials from e-waste has been estimated at $7 billion annually.
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Transforming trash infrastructure can significantly reduce toxic pollution on our planet. But with confusing and complicated recycling rules that people don't understand or pay attention to, technological developments like this one are necessary to simplify and streamline the process.
Now that the e-waste robot is complete, Travers and his team are sending it to a Pennsylvania company for further development and implementation.
So far, the robot's focus has been on discarded flat-panel televisions because of their size and availability. But the hope is that the technology can be used for many other types of electronics to address growing e-waste concerns.
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