Amid the artificial intelligence boom, an innovative recycling plant is optimizing the processing of recyclables. According to an article published by Spectrum News 1, the Rumpke Waste & Recycling Center is using AI to improve its recycling facility.
"We're built for growth. We're built for the population of today as well as the population well into the future," Amanda Pratt, Rumpke's Senior VP of Communications, told Spectrum News 1, referencing the state-of-the-art recycling center capable of processing 60 tons of recyclables per hour.
The Rumpke facility features ballistic separators, trommels, AI, robotics, vacuum systems, hydraulic tippers, optical sorters (hyperspectral imaging), and cranes, designed with massive scale and efficiency in mind.
The optical sensors and robotics are where AI shines, identifying and separating paper, glass, plastic, and aluminum at mind-blowing speeds, producing 250,000 tons of processed recyclables per year at a recovery rate of 98%.
The rapid pace is thanks to AI, though employees at the front and middle of the line load and sort items that the AI and machinery miss.
Beyond just the innovation and functionality, the Rumpke Waste & Recycling Center is also an educational hub, the result of a partnership with the Center of Science & Industry and Ohio State University.
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This center is home to research and development facilities, the education center itself, and a career and training center for CDL licensing, leadership courses, and staff education. It really is a "do-it-all" facility, combining high-tech automation with learning resources.
The U.S. makes up roughly 4% of the world's population, while being responsible for 12% of the world's municipal waste, making the U.S. the largest generator of municipal waste and the second largest generator of e-waste, per the Statista Research Department.
While this is a single facility, it serves 50 counties across the state of Ohio. Imagine a hundred more facilities just like it, and then a thousand. The benefits this will provide for resource conservation and community health are considerable and long overdue.
"And the best part is that about 80% of the material that we're processing right here stays in the state of Ohio," Pratt told Spectrum News 1, showcasing the benefits of sending recycled materials to manufacturers throughout the state, where they are reused to produce new products.
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