AI-powered kerbside recycling robot commissioned

Tetra Pak has partnered with APR Kerbside to implement an AI robot that can identify and sort used Tetra Pak beverage cartons.

The robot has been commissioned at the APR Kerbside Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in Truganina, Victoria. The glass-out facility has the capacity to process up to 20,000 tonnes of materials annually and mainly sorts items from the kerbside stream. Such items collected from residents’ yellow-lidded recycling bins include paper and cardboard, steel, aluminium, and plastic bottles and containers. The robot has been training, learning to recognise all the different types of beverage cartons like milk, soy, oat, almond, stock and juice, ahead of its final deployment in the coming weeks.

The councils that are working with APR Kerbside are excited about this opportunity to divert more valuable resources from landfill. They are eager to expand the current kerbside service offering to their respective residents.

“Tetra Pak is incredibly proud to be pioneering this exciting recycling innovation with APR to further advance the circular economy in Australia," said Vikas Ahuja, Sustainability Director for ANZ.

“For us at Tetra Pak, to be the first market outside of the US to introduce this AI-powered recycling robot is testament to the steadfast progress we have been making in our sustainability journey in Australia.”

Darren Thorpe, MD of APR Kerbside, said the innovation is one of many planned steps.

“We take pride in being at the forefront of recycling innovation in the ways we tackle resource management at our material recovery facility (MRF),” he said.

“Future aspirations of expanding and working towards additional MRFs in Victoria will allow us to increase our processing capacity. We are looking to install more AI robots as part of our upgrade and expansion plans. It is our commitment to continue supporting carton recycling infrastructure and enable the circular economy so that Australians know their recycling efforts aren’t going to waste,” he said.