Bollegraaf, the world’s largest builder of recycling plants, has entered into a strategic partnership with Greyparrot, a pioneer in AI waste analytics, to transform global waste management.

The deal, worth $12.8M, will see Bollegraaf transfer its AI vision business to Greyparrot and also become a worldwide distributor and strategic partner for Greyparrot’s Analyzer, which provides 100% visibility into waste streams at recycling plants using AI camera systems.

The partnership aims to retrofit thousands of existing recycling facilities with advanced AI capabilities to boost recycling rates and quantify material emissions. The collaboration will also develop new products that combine the strengths of both companies to make the vision of fully automated and intelligent sorting facilities a reality.

By 2050, the world is expected to generate 3.4 billion tonnes of waste annually. With only around 5,500 facilities handling municipal solid waste currently operating worldwide, there is a critical need to build more next-generation plants and retrofit older ones with new technologies – such as AI – to meet the growing tsunami of waste.

Greyparrot’s Analyzer gives 100% visibility into waste composition to unlock a new, more intelligent level of insight about waste that Greyparrot calls waste intelligence. With automated, real-time waste monitoring and digitised systems powered by AI, the industry can tackle the issue of ‘invisible waste’ and transform a traditionally labour-intensive process.

The partnership marks a momentous acceleration in the global shift from a linear to a circular economy, unlocking new value in waste streams while diverting millions of tonnes of waste away from landfills, oceans, and incinerators.

It will also foster unprecedented collaboration across the waste value chain and those influencing it, uniting producers, waste managers and regulators to recover and reuse waste materials more sustainably.

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