By the numbers:
- 10 million: The number of items one Glacier robot can save from landfills each year
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Story 18 of 26 - Sep 19, 2024 - US
Amazon, PepsiCo, and Glacier: Pioneering breakthroughs in recycling
Featuring
Materials, Product Lifecycle, and Circularity
The Climate Pledge Fund
By The Climate Pledge
Amazon and PepsiCo are collaborating with Glacier, a startup that uses AI and robotic sorting to identify and recycle more materials.
“As we see mounting legislative, economic, and social pressure to recycle better, brands are using our data to measure and improve how their packaging is being recycled, while recycling facilities are using our data to improve their operations and rescue more recyclables from landfill. We’re thrilled to be collaborating with a circular economy leader like Amazon so that we can accelerate our mission to end waste.”
Recycling garners public support and yet only 21% of potentially recyclable materials in residential areas of the United States are recycled. It’s a problem that can be blamed in part on infrastructure. But Amazon believes technology can enable us to reimagine the future of recycling.
That’s why Amazon is excited about The Climate Pledge Fund’s investment in Glacier, a start-up that’s committed to keeping more waste out of our landfills and improving the efficiency of the circular economy with two breakthrough technologies. Glacier’s artificial intelligence, trained to recognize over 30 types of reusable materials, is integrated with its purpose-built robotic sorting mechanism that keeps costs low and recyclables out of oceans and landfills.
Glacier’s artificial intelligence, trained to recognize over 30 types of reusable materials, is integrated with a robotic sorting mechanism that keeps costs low and recyclables out of oceans and landfill.
Glacier has trained its AI to identify bio-based materials in the recycling stream to identify available biomaterials and separate them from plastics and other materials created by fossil fuels so that they can be reused in more sustainable packaging. “What we’re really most excited about in the partnership with Glacier is the opportunity to leverage their technology to make materials recyclable that are not yet recyclable today,” says Tristanne Martini, the Senior Circular Economy Lead at Amazon. The Climate Pledge signatory PepsiCo is also collaborating on this project, demonstrating an industry-wide interest in recycling more types of packaging.
Glacier views its work as an important link to the entire circular economy, helping recycling companies operate more efficiently and providing data to producers that can be used to improve packaging design and sustainability. Its partnership with Amazon is helping make that vision a reality.