Active environmental protection with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) in the recycling of plastic waste.

In a joint project with the Bruchsal Regional Economic Development Corporation, project manager Tobias Heuser from [ui!] Urban Mobility Innovations wants to use AI to recycle the plastic waste produced in households with a purity level of 85% - 95% in the future.

The goal set is to be achieved through improved recognition of lightweight packaging in sorting facilities and thus increased use of recycled materials for new lightweight packaging.

In this AI project, a corresponding solution was developed and tested together with the practical partner PreZero. The appropriate system was installed in Ölbronn to teach machines with corresponding computers to identify and separate objects in the same way as is currently still done by humans on the sorting belt.

The use of AI here enables round-the-clock transparency of the waste passing over the belt and thus, in the long term, more efficient separation of recyclable plastic waste before it is incinerated.

The joint project enables successful cooperation between traditional companies and start-ups and shows that digitization does not have to be a cost driver, but rather reduces them.