An AI-powered food-grade plastic-sorting project
The OMNI project, directed by this company, Valorplast and TotalEnergies, aims to enhance the circularity of polypropylene (PP) food packaging by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for the identification and separation of food-grade PP from household post-consumer wastes. The new technology is based on AI and computer vision, coupled with an efficient decontamination process, to provide a high-performing, marketable solution to tackle the challenge of mechanically recycling PP for food-contact applications. After 18 months of research, OMNI led to an alternative to digital and physical marking solutions, which require system-wide packaging changes. A demonstration unit was built and an AI model trained, based on wastes collected from five locations across France. The AI and robotic sorting achieved a successful pick rate of 50% of the food-grade material. This sorting activity produced material used for further decontamination on a semi-industrial pilot plant. — Recycleye, London, U.K.