AMP to Operate Waste Connections Recycling Facility with AI-Powered Sortation Technology

By: AMP Robotics Corp. via Business Wire

November 18, 2024 at 08:00 AM EST

First-of-its-kind facility featuring fully integrated AI will ultimately process 62,000 tons per year of single-stream recycling

AMP Robotics Corp. (“AMP”), a leading provider of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered sortation at scale for the waste and recycling industry, has entered into an agreement with Waste Connections, Inc. (TSX/NYSE: WCN) to equip and operate one of Waste Connections’ greenfield, next-generation recycling facilities. Located in Commerce City, Colorado, the facility will be commissioned in early 2026.

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AMP will equip and operate one of Waste Connections’ greenfield, next-generation recycling facilities with AI-powered sortation technology. Located in Commerce City, Colorado, the facility will be commissioned in early 2026. (Graphic: Business Wire)

The Waste Connections facility will feature an AMP ONE™ system and leverage AMP Smart Sortation ™ to optimize processing of up to 62,000 tons of single-stream recycling annually. Through its provision of AMP Smart Sortation, AMP will operate and maintain the system. The facility will be fully integrated with AMP’s industry-leading AI, which will enable the automated sorting of single-stream recycling, extraction of targeted commodities, and production of custom feedstock blends.

“AMP's innovative design, enabled by its technology, allows the company to offer us a competitive package for achieving our goals in the region,” said Mark Ceresa, Division vice president for Waste Connections. “The system is flexible to our scale, sorting, and Extended Producer Responsibility compliance needs, and can adapt as our commodity needs and waste stream changes. AMP offers us a unique way to enter this market, by guaranteeing these capabilities on a pay-per-ton contract.”

The AMP ONE system will deliver high recovery rates with guaranteed performance, process certain material streams autonomously, and improve its throughput capacity over time with regular software updates. The system leverages continuous AI material and purity monitoring and sorting to an extent not seen in the industry before, replacing multiple screens to provide unprecedented operational flexibility. This inventive design allows the system to respond to problems, such as detecting jams or drops in performance, and optimize itself in real time.

“We’ve shown a higher level of performance is achievable when the capabilities of AI are built in at the facility level,” said Tim Stuart, chief executive officer of AMP. “Waste Connections’ adoption of facility-scale sortation is a milestone for the industry. This is a facility that delivers on the true potential of recycling, and we couldn’t be more delighted to be doing this with our Waste Connections partners.”

In 2020, AMP and Waste Connections entered into a long-term agreement to deploy 24 of AMP’s AI-guided robotics systems on container, fiber, and residue lines across numerous Waste Connections MRFs. In 2022, Waste Connections and AMP expanded their partnership with Waste Connections’ deployment of more than 50 of AMP’s systems. The company is the largest operator of AI-guided robotics in the industry.

About AMP™

AMP is applying AI-powered sortation at scale to modernize the world's recycling infrastructure and maximize the value in waste. AMP gives waste and recycling leaders the power to harness AI to reduce labor costs, increase resource recovery, and deliver more reliable operations. The company’s AI platform has identified 150 billion items and guided the sortation of more than 2.5 million tons of recyclables. With three full-scale facilities and more than 400 AI systems deployed across North America, Asia, and Europe, AMP’s technology offers a transformational solution to waste sortation and changes the fundamental economics of recycling.

About Waste Connections

Waste Connections is an integrated solid waste services company that provides non-hazardous waste collection, transfer and disposal services, including by rail, along with resource recovery primarily through recycling and renewable fuels generation. The Company serves approximately nine million residential, commercial and industrial customers in mostly exclusive and secondary markets across 44 states in the U.S. and six provinces in Canada. Waste Connections also provides non-hazardous oilfield waste treatment, recovery and disposal services in several basins across the U.S. and Canada, as well as intermodal services for the movement of cargo and solid waste containers in the Pacific Northwest. Waste Connections views its Environmental, Social and Governance ("ESG") efforts as integral to its business, with initiatives consistent with its objective of long-term value creation and focused on reducing emissions, increasing resource recovery of both recyclable commodities and clean energy fuels, reducing reliance on off-site disposal for landfill leachate, further improving safety and enhancing employee engagement. Visit wasteconnections.com/sustainability for more information and updates on our progress towards targeted achievement.