That stat about AI recycling sorting accuracy blew my mind

Read in a waste management report last week that AI-powered sorting systems can identify and separate materials with 95% accuracy, compared to the 60% humans manage. Anyone else wonder why more cities aren't jumping on this tech?

2 comments

2 Comments

maryt6224d ago

Wait, is the cost factor the only thing holding cities back? The 35% accuracy gap seems huge enough to justify the investment. Maybe some places just haven't done the math yet.

hollyc9224d ago

A buddy of mine, Mike, works for a mid-sized city in Ohio and he told me they looked into these AI sorters a couple years back. They ran the numbers and found the upfront cost was just insane for their budget (like, millions for a single facility upgrade). Plus, there was pushback from the recycling plant workers who thought the AI would replace their jobs, which is a real concern when you're dealing with union contracts. Mike said they ended up buying a few smaller, cheaper sorters for one plant as a test, but the accuracy was way lower than 95% (more like 80%) because the tech wasn't tuned for their specific local waste stream. So even though the gap sounds huge, the real world install isn't always plug and play. It's a bummer because the potential is there, but a lot of cities just don't have the cash or the staff to make the switch smoothly.