Tony Fadell’s Build Collective Backs Greyparrot's Launch of Next-Gen Sustainable AI Waste Analyzer

25 September 2024

Waste analytics leader is tackling the global waste crisis by helping customers improve recycling efficiency, capture CO2 emissions, and prevent waste leakage into nature.

Greyparrot, the global leader in AI waste analytics, today launched its next-generation Greyparrot Analyzer unit. The new unit is made of lightweight recyclable materials, and uses 10%—15% less energy than the previous generation. Greyparrot Analyzer units sit above conveyor belts in recycling facilities and use cameras to capture real-time images and output AI-powered data on waste flows. Analyzer gives Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) 100% visibility into the composition of waste processed within their facility. As a result, Greyparrot helped its customers avoid 20 tCO₂eq emissions by diverting 66k tons of recyclable material from landfills, incineration, and oceans last year.

The Greyparrot Analyzer’s newly designed and sustainable hardware advances the company’s mission to boost global recycling rates while reducing the product's shipping and transportation environmental impact. The next-generation unit transitions from a fully metal chassis to a lightweight yet strong polycarbonate unit with metal bracing and other recyclable materials. Meanwhile, the majority of its energy savings come from its new GPU, which saves around 50W while computing on the edge.

“Humans create 3.4B tons of waste per year, which ends up buried or burned! The only way out of the mess is separating the waste AFTER collecting it,” said Tony Fadell, Principal at Build Collective, and the inventor of the iPod and Nest. “Recycling facilities need superpowers to identify & classify the value of their waste streams. Greyparrot’s AI-powered waste analyzer does exactly that: it distinguishes the type of material, brand, size, mass, function, monetary value, and emissions potential of each piece of our trash. Greyparrot turns trash into treasure accurately, quickly, and cost-effectively."

The next-generation Greyparrot Analyzer’s lightweight design, which is a third lighter, takes 18.7 lbs off from the prior generation, making it simpler to install even in tight spaces. With every 100 units deployed, the reduced carbon footprint is equivalent to saving 25.7 metric tons of CO2, significantly lowering the environmental impact. It is also equipped with a custom-designed LED lighting system that offers more powerful and custom illumination, further improving accurate waste material recognition and data in low-light environments. Color light indicators and an LCD display screen are included on the unit to indicate unit status to MRF operators, making troubleshooting easier.

“The launch of our latest waste analyzer is a huge leap forward for enhancing waste analytics, and we’re thrilled to have Tony aboard for this step in our mission,” said Ambarish Mitra, Greyparrot’s co-founder. “We’ve certainly taken some inspiration from him in aiming to be the ‘Apple of the waste industry,’ with a product designed with both best-in-class hardware and software. This new generation of our Greyparrot Analyzer unit is designed, created, and built in Britain, which is quite rare and ensures a low carbon footprint. By bringing this latest hardware and its corresponding software update to the market, we’re providing MRFs with a sleeker, more sustainable, and low-powered AI solution to increase global recycling rates. MRFs can now better unlock the financial value of their waste to support a transition to a more circular economy, which can keep our environment clean for generations to come.”

New Greyparrot Analyzer Hardware, And New Waste Analytics Software

With the launch of the next-generation waste analyzer, Greyparrot is also rolling out a major software update for the Greyparrot Analyzer platform, fully compatible with the current hardware version. The update is a significant enhancement to the widely-used Alerts feature. Analyzer Alerts notify MRFs of dips in purity and other sudden changes in material composition via Greyparrot’s Analyzer portal, and via SMS or email. By identifying material composition shifts against set thresholds, the system alerts operators to quality issues and potential blockages, preventing escalations and reducing manual interventions. Acting in real-time, the facility can proactively reduce commodity loss while safeguarding product quality. As a result, MRFs can decrease recycling facility and waste stream downtime, which is a significant loss leader.

By delivering and unifying this type of critical data from conveyor belts, Greyparrot is unleashing the power of lean facility management. Real-time data insights guide decision-making and enable operators to delicately balance throughput rates, product purity, and the loss of valuable material to residue.