Twin Cities recycling plant boosts capacity with AI sorting
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A major regional recycling plant in the Twin Cities has finished a $23 million renovation to increase its capacity, as the state aims to recycle more and throw away less.
Troy Hanson is the director of post collections operations at WM, which recently showed off the updated plant. Hanson said the 15-year-old facility — off Broadway Street in northeast Minneapolis — was due for improvements.
“Population is growing, recycling is becoming more popular — we’re going to need more capacity,” Hanson said.
Improvements include new AI sorting technology, in place of some hand-sorting. Separating out different materials is a crucial step in the process — sort wrong, and waste can end up sent to the landfill. And, sorting needs to move fast. The WM plant in Minneapolis processes dozens of tons of recycling per day, hauled in from Minnesota, the Dakotas, northern Iowa and western Wisconsin.
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With the new AI equipment, cameras and lasers scan materials as they move along the plant’s conveyor belts. They can tell a polypropylene yogurt container from other plastics, for example — which Hanson said used to get missed in the sorting process because they’re small.
“In our old technology, they would be difficult to capture. Now, we’re able to train and program an optical sorter to be able to identify those materials, capture those materials and ultimately those materials now are repurposed and recycled,” Hanson said.
The plant upgrade is part of a nationwide project to update plants around the country. Minnesota has set a goal to recycle 75 percent of waste in the Twin Cities metro area — and 35 percent in the rest of the state — by 2030.
Hanson said recycling rules haven’t changed. But he said it’s a good idea to double-check your city’s collection guidelines before throwing anything out.
“Always recycle cardboard, always recycle plastics, always recycle aluminum cans,” Hanson said. “Make sure your containers are clean and dry.”
And, he said, people should avoid recycling plastic bags and batteries. Those need to go to separate facilities, and they can cause problems at the recycling plant if they land on the conveyor belt.
The plant is now capable of processing about 240,000 tons of recycling per year, up from its old capacity of 150,000 tons per year. And, it’s open to tours, with a newly refurbished education center.
