Artificial Intelligence in the Sorting of Municipal Waste as an Enabler of the Circular Economy

Henning Wilts, Beatriz Riesco Garcia, Rebeca Guerra Garlito, Laura Saralegui Gómez and Elisabet González Prieto
Additional contact information
Henning Wilts: Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy gGmbH, 42103 Wuppertal, Germany
Beatriz Riesco Garcia: Centre for Innovation in Smart Infrastructure in Guadalajara, 19005 Guadalajara, Spain
Rebeca Guerra Garlito: Centre for Innovation in Smart Infrastructure in Guadalajara, 19005 Guadalajara, Spain
Laura Saralegui Gómez: Ferrovial Services, 28050 Madrid and 08038 Barcelona, Spain
Elisabet González Prieto: Ferrovial Services, 28050 Madrid and 08038 Barcelona, Spain

Resources, 2021, vol. 10, issue 4, 1-9

Abstract: The recently finalized research project “ZRR for municipal waste” aimed at testing and evaluating the automation of municipal waste sorting plants by supplementing or replacing manual sorting, with sorting by a robot with artificial intelligence (ZRR). The objectives were to increase the current recycling rates and the purity of the recovered materials; to collect additional materials from the current rejected flows; and to improve the working conditions of the workers, who could then concentrate on, among other things, the maintenance of the robots. Based on the empirical results of the project, this paper presents the main results of the training and operation of the robotic sorting system based on artificial intelligence, which, to our knowledge, is the first attempt at an application for the separation of bulky municipal solid waste (MSW) and an installation in a full-scale waste treatment plant. The key questions for the research project included (a) the design of test protocols to assess the quality of the sorting process and (b) the evaluation of the performance quality in the first six months of the training of the underlying artificial intelligence and its database.

Keywords: artificial intelligence; circular economy; municipal solid waste (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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