EverestLabs has raised $16.1 million to help advance its artificial intelligence-enabled operating system for recycling.
The company’s RecycleOS is an automation system for recycling plants, packaging manufacturers, and consumer packaged goods companies. EverstLabs says it is the first full-stack artificial intelligence and automation platform for recycling operations.
The Series A funding was led by Translink Capital with participation by NEC Orchestrating Future Fund and existing investors BGV, Sierra Ventures, Morado Ventures, and Xplorer Capital. EverstLabs says the funds will help it increase its market offering capabilities and also help it commercialize processes based on the platform’s operating system, robotics, and end-of-arm tools.
EverestLabs says the system increases the recovery of recyclables at operations such as a materials recovery facility by two-to-four times compared with manual processes. The company says the system is also up to four times less expensive than traditional recycling operating systems.
The RecycleOS-powered robotic cells recover recyclables with an efficiency rate of more than 90%, EverestLabs says. The system provides daily data that can help facility operators make strategic decisions, and it also can track ESG information.
In the United States, more than 292 million tons of municipal solid waste were produced in 2018, according to the EPA. Of that, 69 million tons were recycled.
“The materials recovery facility (MRF) industry represents a major market with a $9B opportunity in the U.S. alone, yet MRFs are losing billions in missed revenue from recyclables that end up in landfills or that could have been sold in bales to manufacturers,” says Kaz Kikuchi, principal of Translink Capital, who will also join EverestLabs’ board as part of the financing deal.
That gap has led companies, municipalities, and organizations to look to close that gap and increase recycling rates.
Waste Management recently acquired Avangard Innovative’s United State business which will significantly grow the hauler’s recycling program, as one example. Houston also added a digital system this year to help it manage and improve its waste and recycling programs.
The Recycling Partnership says it has invested more than $23 million in recycling facilities and diverted 770 million pounds of waste from landfills over the past decade.
EverestLabs says regulations, such as China’s National Sword Policy that limits contamination of recyclables, as well as goals to increase recycled content in packaging and other materials are also driving the need to make recycling operations efficient.
EverestLabs’ platform has been used by private companies and US cities, including North America’s largest MRF, SIMS Municipal Recycling Sunset Park in Brooklyn, New York. The company has now raised more than $24 million.