Visit to Sherbourne Recycling Plant - by Edward Ileomoh
What happens when you mix human ingenuity, robots, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and waste management?
The answer is the Sherbourne Recycling Plant. As a Student Ambassador for Coventry University Environment Team, the team and I had the opportunity of visiting the Sherbourne Recycling Plant and we were simply amazed at how vision, the use of technology and scale of operation can all have positive impact on the planet.
The Sherborne Recycling Plant is a 12,000 sq. meters, purpose-built, 24/7 operation, state of the art facility, powered by 100% renewable energy and the most advanced Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) in the UK. Located in the Sherbourne Resource Park, Coventry.
The Sherborne Recycling Park. Source: (Newssherbournerecycling.co.uk)
Starting as a concept developed in 2016 by the Coventry City Council, along with seven other local authorities across the West Midlands, all of whom were confronted by the hydra-headed challenge of recycling the waste generated by over 1.5 million residents. The various councils needed a future-proof, environmentally friendly and sustainable method of waste management. The Sherbourne Recycling Plant is the end-product of that ambitiousness, accepting its first recycling in 2023. The Sherbourne Recycling Plant has 18 sorting robots, with 14 optical sorters in a closed loop control system, using AI to allowing real time monitoring and on-the-fly machine learning. Such is the precision of the technology at the Sherbourne Recycling Plant, that all materials recycled at the plant achieves a high level of recycle purity, which is higher than the industry average and all material recycled at the plant are redistributed in the UK.
The Significance of the Sherbourne Recycling facility
As no expense was spared in innovation, efficiency, and sustainability, it is unsurprising, that the Sherbourne Recycling Plant is set to archive B-Corp Status, (conferred on companies verified by B Lab on attaining a high standard of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability).
The Sherborne Recycling Plant has deployed audacity and state-of-the-art technology to achieve an unprecedented level of success. The Sherbourne Recycling Plant with the use of machine learning and specialist sorting robotics; all powered by Artificial Intelligence. The Sherborne Recycling Plant processes 47.5 tonnes of waste every hour, with a capacity to process 175,000 tonnes of waste yearly. The plant strives to decrease its carbon footprint by using photovoltaic cells (i.e. solar panels to you and me), it also relies on 100% renewable clean energy from an Energy from Waste plant (EfW) which happens to be next door. Even vehicles used in the plant to move material around are powered by sustainable technology.
Surrounded by all this tech, I quickly observed that at the very heart of it all was people, people made the Sherbourne Recycle Plant tick. The use of Artificial Intelligence and robots just made life easier by automating the hardest and most unpleasant parts of the recycling process and upscaling the Human Development Index (HDI).
The Sherbourne Recycling Plant is noteworthy because it showcases the potential economic benefits that sustainable development can have on improving the Human Development Index (HDI). This is achieved through promoting sustainable economic growth and providing workers with new skills by utilizing advanced recycling techniques.
Finally, if what I saw at the Sherbourne Recycling Plant is anything to go by, in the next 25 years, you and I might as well throw our rubbish into a robot and not a bin.
You can find out more about the Sherbourne Recycling Plant here — Sherbourne Recycling