Bollegraaf teams up with Greyparrot to transform global waste management

NETHERLANDS – Bollegraaf, the world’s largest builder of recycling plants, has forged a strategic alliance with Greyparrot, a pioneer in AI waste analytics, to transform global waste management.

Under the accord, Bollegraaf will transfer its AI vision sector to Greyparrot and will also infuse a cash investment in Greyparrot – aggregating to US$12.8 million, thereby securing a stake in the enterprise.

Bollegraaf shall additionally function as the exclusive distributor and strategic collaborator for Greyparrot’s Analyzer, which presently furnishes comprehensive insight into waste streams at recycling installations across 14 nations, leveraging AI camera systems.

The arrangement encompasses Greyparrot’s acquisition of Bollegraaf’s vision-oriented computing intellectual property (IP) and esteemed AI development unit.

Greyparrot will also inaugurate its inaugural mainland European office in the Netherlands. This pioneering partnership envisages retrofitting myriad extant Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) and Plastics Recovery Facilities (PRFs) with advanced AI capabilities to significantly elevate recycling rates and quantify material emissions.

The synergistic effort will engender groundbreaking intelligent recycling facilities, entirely automated and adaptable, thereby unlocking fresh value in waste streams while diverting millions of tonnes of waste from landfills, oceans, and incinerators.

In a paradigm-shifting advancement in waste management, this signifies a momentous stride in the global transition from a linear to a circular economy.

Greyparrot and Bollegraaf jointly commit to fostering further innovations amalgamating the strengths of both entities to materialize the vision of fully automated and intelligent sorting installations.

With a commanding presence, encompassing over 50% of the global recycling plant market, delivering comprehensive recycling solutions, Bollegraaf is ideally positioned to furnish the physical infrastructure, while Greyparrot’s established prowess in integrating AI waste analytics into software and hardware systems augments the indispensable digital stratum.

In the year 2023 alone, Greyparrot’s Analyzer facilitated the scrutiny of over 25 billion waste items, categorizing them into 70+ classifications in real-time, unveiling seven tiers of data, including material composition, monetary worth, brand identity, and greenhouse gas emissions.

By 2050, the world is projected to generate 3.4 billion tonnes of waste annually. With only around 5,500 facilities currently managing municipal solid waste globally, there exists a pressing imperative to construct more cutting-edge facilities and retrofit antiquated ones with novel technologies – such as AI – to expedite processing durations and augment recycling rates to counteract the burgeoning waste deluge.

At present, merely 1% of waste undergoes monitoring within facilities, and even in developed economies, 40% of waste sorting is executed manually.

AI, and the real-time data it unveils, will facilitate the digitization and automation of systems to reclaim a substantial quantum of forfeited financial value.

Solely within the United States, the dearth of visibility and automation for plastic waste translates to an annual loss ranging from US$80 billion to US$120 billion attributed to landfills and incineration.

Greyparrot’s Analyzer furnishes comprehensive insight into waste composition, heralding a new, more astute echelon of comprehension about waste, termed waste intelligence.

Through automated, real-time waste surveillance and digitized systems empowered by AI, the sector can address the quandary of ‘invisible waste’ and metamorphose a traditionally labor-intensive process.

Enhanced data transparency will empower waste managers to authoritatively attest to regulatory and contractual adherence.

This pivotal waste data concerning the post-consumption landscape will engender unparalleled collaboration throughout the waste value chain and its influencers, uniting producers, waste managers, and regulators to recuperate and reuse waste materials in a more sustainable manner.

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