Circular Services is planning to ramp up a pilot of Greyparrot's Analyzer AI software at its Sunset Park MRF in Brooklyn, New York. The technology is meant to improve recovery rates using cameras and artificial intelligence.
The collaboration could lead to additional deployment of the technology across Circular Services' portfolio of 38 MRFs, Jamie Lowrey, the company’s vice president of east recycling operations, said in an emailed statement.
So far, Greyparrot's systems have been passively monitoring operations at the Sunset Park facility. The company says it’s determined that 89% of aluminum passing through the facility is recoverable, equal to about 91,000 cans per day.
Circular Services installed Greyparrot's systems at its Sunset Park MRF in the first quarter of this year. It's the first time the company has deployed the AI software at its facilities, according to Lowrey. It plans to further test the possibilities of the software this year.
"[We] will be running several projects in partnership with Greyparrot this fall where we will assess the impacts from the system's alerts to our facility management about commodity quality and its detailed reporting on production," a spokesperson for Circular Services said.
Greyparrot says its camera sorting system can increase efficiency gains by 10% to 20%, and that it has surpassed 1 trillion waste detections across all applications and facilities where it’s deployed. The company has been pouring funding into its MRF technologies, touting their ability to improve recovery rates at the facilities. In July, it announced a $27 million series B funding round led by technology investor Omar Mir.
It disclosed plans to use the most recent funding round to expand its AI, data science and product teams to further refine its insights for clients. The company estimated that its systems deployed at MRFs had identified over $2.5 billion in recoverable value as of July.
The collaboration with Circular Services comes as aluminum can recycling in particular has been is at its lowest level in decades, according to research published in 2024 by the Aluminum Association and Can Manufacturers Institute.
Greyparrot cited the research in a joint release published Wednesday from the two companies. The company also highlighted the energy savings that can be made by recovering aluminum, with production of products from recycled aluminum up to 95% more efficient than virgin material.
“Waste intelligence makes that visible for the first time, and what it shows is domestic supply hiding in plain sight,” Ambarish Mitra, cofounder of Greyparrot, said in a statement.
Closed Loop Partners, which backes Circular Services, has worked with Greyparrot on other projects in the past. That includes a report the partners released last year on the use of Greyparrot’s AI technology to recover food-grade polypropylene in MRFs.
Circular Services has also been expanding as of late. On Tuesday, it announced its acquisition of Re:Dish, a reusable food service ware company serving large clients.
