The Era of Intelligent Recycling: How AI is Shaping Waste Management
In this podcast episode, we're focusing on the transformative role of AI and robotics in revolutionizing the recycling industry. This isn't just about machines taking over traditional tasks; it's a story of how cutting-edge technology is enabling us to tackle one of our planet's most pressing issues - packaging waste.
We'll explore how artificial intelligence and advanced robotics are making recycling processes more efficient, accurate, and cost-effective. We'll look at the challenges the recycling sector faces, from sorting complexities to operational inefficiencies, and how technology offers innovative solutions.
š§ Listen to & watch the episode
š KEY MOMENTS
ā
š¤ INTERVIEW WITH APURBA
Dunja Jovanovic: Could you please introduce yourself to our listeners and tell us a bit about what Everlast Lab does?
Apurba Pradhan: Hi, Iām Apurba Pradhan, Head of Product and Marketing at EverestLabs in Silicon Valley. We're an AI company that focuses on addressing the challenge of packaging waste. By integrating AI technology and automation, such as robotics, we assist recyclers in significantly improving their recycling capabilities, thereby contributing to a circular economy. Since our inception in 2018, we've been scaling our products and gaining traction, particularly in North America.
DJ: Can you elaborate on the types of packaging waste you handle?
AP: In the US, around a third of all waste generated is packaging waste. This encompasses a wide range of items, from aluminum cans and cardboard boxes to plastic bottles and food containers. Despite their potential for recycling, a majority of these materials unfortunately end up in landfills or oceans, largely due to operational inefficiencies in recycling. Our mission at Everest Labs is to solve this problem.
DJ: What inspired the creation of EverestLabs?
AP: Our founder, JD Ambati, established Everest Labs in 2018, specifically to tackle the critical issue of packaging waste, which is a significant challenge in terms of sustainability. The company name reflects this ambition ā 'Everest' symbolizing the scale of the challenge and 'Labs' indicating our experimental approach to finding solutions. We believe in the importance of not only improving sustainability but also realizing the economic advantages of recycling materials like aluminum and plastics.
DJ: Can you explain how your AI-powered system helps in addressing this issue?
AP: Our AI technology plays a dual role. Firstly, it enables recycling facilities to operate more efficiently by providing them with valuable data. Secondly, it automates their sorting processes. For instance, recycling facilities traditionally operate with minimal data input, lacking real-time insights into their processes. Our technology addresses this gap, enhancing efficiency and recovery rates. Additionally, we've introduced high-speed robotic sorters that streamline manual sorting tasks, further increasing efficiency and reducing operational costs.
DJ: What kind of impact have you seen from implementing this technology?
AP: The impact has been substantial. Our technology not only improves material recovery rates but also significantly reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills ā by up to 50% in some cases. This also translates to increased revenue for recycling facilities through the sale of recovered materials. Moreover, we're helping downstream reprocessors by enhancing the quality and availability of recycled materials.
DJ: With your recent Series A funding, what are your plans for utilizing these resources?
AP: The funding is instrumental in scaling our technology and demonstrating its value across various recycling facilities. Our solutions offer a rapid return on investment, often within six months, making them appealing to both small and large recycling companies. Our focus now is on expanding our commercial operations, first in the US and then globally, to replicate our success across more recycling facilities.
DJ: Are there any collaborations or partnerships in the sustainability space that you'd like to highlight?
AP: While we primarily sell directly to recycling facilities, we do have technological partnerships. We work closely with industry leaders like Fanuc for industrial robotics and Nvidia and Intel for AI processing. As we expand internationally, we're exploring potential commercial partnerships to help us enter new markets.
DJ: Looking to the future, where do you see EverestLabs in the next several years?
AP: We envision our AI and robotics continuously evolving to tackle more sorting challenges within recycling facilities. But beyond that, the real opportunity lies in the data we're gathering. This data has the potential to revolutionize the recycling supply chain, aiding manufacturers in meeting their sustainable packaging goals and bringing transparency to the market for recycled commodities.
DJ: Despite these advancements, recycling rates remain low. What are the primary challenges in this area?
AP: The main challenge is creating a more efficient recycling market. Currently, the supply chain struggles to offer high-quality recycled materials at competitive prices, stemming from high operational costs at recycling facilities. By addressing these inefficiencies and aligning with policy changes, we can make significant progress. Technology and operational improvements are key to bridging these gaps.
DJ: How can individuals and companies contribute to better recycling practices?
AP: Beyond adopting proper recycling habits, consumers can influence broader change through their purchasing decisions and political advocacy. Supporting policies that hold producers responsible for packaging waste is essential. In Europe and Canada, we see the rise of producer-funded recycling models, and similar movements are gaining momentum in the US.
DJ: For startups in the clean tech space, do you have any advice on fundraising, scaling, or partnerships?
AP: The key is to solve problems that deliver tangible economic benefits. This creates a strong foundation for your business, which can be further boosted by policy changes and sustainability trends. Addressing today's challenges is crucial for long-term success. Startups should focus on offering solutions that are economically viable now, not just in the future.
DJ: Lastly, what emerging technologies or trends are you most excited about, especially concerning sustainability?
AP: Besides AI, I'm particularly excited about advances in chemical recycling processes like pyrolysis and gasification. These technologies can convert recycled plastics back into high-quality materials or energy sources, effectively closing the recycling loop. This innovation gives me hope that the efforts we're making in recovery will be complemented by technologies that can reuse these materials in meaningful ways.
š EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
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hello there and welcome to another
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episode of The Green New Perspective
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podcast I am thrilled that you're here
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because that means that we share
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Curiosity on cutting G Technologies
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aimed at combating climate change and if
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you're new to our Channel consider
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subscribing on YouTube Spotify Apple
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podcast Zen Caster or wherever you
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stream your podcast because we have a
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treasure troll of over 20 episodes
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featuring guests innovators from all
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over the clean tech nature Tech agretech
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and biotech space and this episode is no
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different we are talking about recycling
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so it's no surprise that recycling rates
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are dis importantly low worldwide and us
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is no different so we invited everless
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Labs a company that utilizes AI data
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analytics and Robotics to ramp up the
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recycling rates so if you want to know
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how technology can help us recycle
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better stay
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[Music]
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tuned
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hi and welcome to the green New
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Perspective podcast so can you introduce
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yourselves to our audience and then give
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us a bit of an over overview of what
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Everlast lab is and what you do thanks
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for having me my name is a porba I run
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products for a company called Everest
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Labs here in Silicon Valley uh we're an
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AI company that's focused on packaging
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waste and eliminating packaging waste so
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we apply technology AI technology and
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automation Technologies like robotics
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that help recyclers do a much much
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better job of recycling packaging waste
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through their facilities and put
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materials back into the supply chain to
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sort of foster the circular economy and
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yeah we've been in business since 2018
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we really started scaling our products
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about a year and a half ago and we're
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getting some really good traction
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especially in North America around
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deploying Ai and Robotics in recycling
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facility and I look forward to talking
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to you about it and what kind of
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packaging waste are you recycling yeah
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good question so in the US you know
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something like a third of waste
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generated is packaging waste so how the
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EPA defines packaging waste is waste
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that is thrown away within the year of
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the product being bought so these are
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all the things that are sort of
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packaging the everyday items so aluminum
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cans uh cardboard boxes plastic IC
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bottles food containers shampoo
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detergent bottles uh all of these are
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sort of consumer products that use these
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types of packaging and ideally uh all of
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this should be completely recycled and
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put back into the supply chain you know
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we have complete control over what
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materials we use how we collect them how
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we sort them how we put them back but
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because of operational and efficiencies
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and because of Economics around
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recycling that's not happening a
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majority of this these product products
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are landfilled or end up in oceans so
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that's the problem we're trying to solve
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and what inspired you to tackle this
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massive problem yeah so the credit goes
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to our founder JD ambati he founded
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Everest labs in
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2018 um you know really to tackle this
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big problem of packaging waste it's one
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of the the bigger problems facing Us in
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terms of sustainability so that's why he
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named the company Everest Labs Everest
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as in you know large is overcoming a
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large problem and then is really just
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being experimental in nature how we
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solve these problems right like I said
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you know a lot of these materials should
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be
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recycled uh we have a lot of incentive
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to do so from a sustainability
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perspective but also from an economic
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perspective right if you take something
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like aluminum I think it takes something
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like a tenth of the energy to recycle
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aluminum versus produce new aluminum
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cans so for so there's a lot of energy
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being wasted in mining and and and
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making new materials uh which you know
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can be avoided same with things like tin
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and stainless steel Plastics is another
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one I think only about 10% of packaging
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waste that we use as Plastics is put
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back into the the economy the rest is
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landfill or end up in oceans and so this
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is a huge problem and a problem that
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needs to be solved and you are using AI
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well AI powered operating system to well
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help help make the change so can you
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tell me how does that works yeah yeah
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sure happy do so you know we we use AI
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to help recyclers do two things one is
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operate their facilities with data and
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then the second is to automate their
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sorting processes and when I say
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automate with data if you think of a
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recycling facility as sort of a
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manufacturing process they are running
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their facilities without any data into
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that process so what material comes into
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a recycling facility How does it go
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through each stages of sortation
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um at the end what did you recover all
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of that data is very manual and very
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collected very infrequently and so they
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don't have real-time data to help them
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sort of optimize their plants uh and
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there's a huge amount of efficiency in
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terms of how much material you recover
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uh and how much material you put back
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into the system that that could be
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gained by using data to know how to
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operate these facilities second is a lot
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of the processes are manual so when you
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go to a recycling facility it goes
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through a series of be belts and there's
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usually people at the end of these lines
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even in developed countries like the US
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um you know all throughout Europe people
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are still sorting these things manually
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there are uh people sing at the end of
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these lines wearing hazmat suit type
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clothing uh picking out you know bottles
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and and cans and plastic containers out
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of these out of these recycling streams
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which then ultimately end up in landf so
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uh and that's a very ination process so
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we introduced robotics very very
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flexible very high-speed sortation
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robotics that do the job and initially
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you know one of the big challenges that
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these recyclers have is hiring people to
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do this kind of job because you can see
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it's a very demanding job that has a lot
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of repetitive motion and and uh very
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sort of high demand on sort of your
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physical body and so people over time
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are just not very good at these types of
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jobs and so we introduce robotics that
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can work 247 that have a high success
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rate uh to do that and when you combine
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those two things the recycling
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facilities can now capture a lot more
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material at a much lower cost which
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means they can put these materials back
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into the supply chain at an economics
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that makes sense for it to kind of go
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through the whole recycling process and
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what impact have you seen so far lots of
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impacts I mean you know they sort of
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impacts we help boost recovery uh so we
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can a robotics can sort you know at
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least as good as people typically about
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two or three times better uh so the the
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recovery at each step of the process can
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be two or time two or three times higher
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uh we help landfill less so if you
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deploy our technology throughout the
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facility typically companies can reduce
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how much their their land filling by 30
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to 50% so almost a third or a half of
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what they were originally putting into
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landfill uh and and because you now
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you're not putting things to landfill
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you're making money out of it right so
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you're basically selling that back into
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the commodity market so that increases
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your your Revenue base as well we also
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can improve the the availability of
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suppliers for
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Downstream uh recycling companies so how
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recycling works is there's a usually a a
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recycling company that sort you know
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collect the things from from household
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and Commercial waste they sort it uh and
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they have facilities called mrfs
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material recovery facilities so there we
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you know just as I mentioned we help
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boost recovery lower costs less landfill
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then Downstream there are people called
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reprocessors or reclaimers who are
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buying those Commodities and turning
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turning them into feed stock turning
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them into materials that you can then
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make packaging out of again those
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companies have a different problem those
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companies have a problem of not being
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able to buy enough supply of good
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recycled content because they're the
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because the the murfs the recycling faes
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don't can't provide enough for those
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reprocessors and reclaimers we help them
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by applying AI technology to their
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supply chain to their feed in feed
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material to help them decide the quality
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of material that's coming in and also be
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able to expand their supply base so we
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can help those companies reduce their
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cost of in feed by almost 2x um so
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there's a lot of benefits Ai and and
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Robotics can provide across this value
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chain well thank you so I've recently
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read that you raised like6 million doar
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in series a funding so what kind of
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things will we focus on with this new
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injection of funds that info is is fine
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if it's the series a funding was last
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year so it's it's been a little bit over
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a year that we raise old news little bit
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of an old news but we've used that
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funding to really prove out the value of
0:09:09.800,0:09:17.720
our technology with recycling facilities
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um so we provide a solution that often
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pays back uh based on the labor savings
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based on the increased recovery uh less
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than six months of purchase for these
0:09:25.519,0:09:29.519
recycling facilities and we've proven
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that for small recycling companies so
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companies that operate one two recycling
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plants we've proven that with the
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largest recycling companies that operate
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you know 60 80 100 plants uh so we've
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proven the value of the technology
0:09:42.079,0:09:46.240
across that recycling spectrum of
0:09:44.040,0:09:48.160
recycling companies we have customers we
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have about 50 sites that we're deployed
0:09:48.160,0:09:53.959
in now we have proven the the economics
0:09:51.320,0:09:55.640
of our solution across these sites and
0:09:53.959,0:09:57.680
so that's what we did with series a
0:09:55.640,0:09:59.440
funding is really sort of scale prove
0:09:57.680,0:10:02.040
the value of a product and and and start
0:09:59.440,0:10:03.839
to scale it now the next F next stage
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for our company is really just to scale
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our commercial and go to market
0:10:05.360,0:10:10.680
operations so we can repeat this process
0:10:08.120,0:10:12.399
across all recycling companies in the US
0:10:10.680,0:10:14.839
starting in the US but also looking at
0:10:12.399,0:10:17.880
globally are there other collaborators
0:10:14.839,0:10:20.320
or partners that you could share with us
0:10:17.880,0:10:22.880
within the sustainability space so we
0:10:20.320,0:10:25.640
don't have any commercial or goto Market
0:10:22.880,0:10:28.240
Partners we sell directly into recycling
0:10:25.640,0:10:30.279
facilities uh we do have Partners on the
0:10:28.240,0:10:32.240
technology side of things so we work
0:10:30.279,0:10:33.839
with some of the best companies that
0:10:32.240,0:10:36.639
that that manufacture industrial
0:10:33.839,0:10:39.320
robotics company in Japan called fanic
0:10:36.639,0:10:42.200
uh we use Nvidia and Intel products for
0:10:39.320,0:10:44.920
processing our our AI uh we are looking
0:10:42.200,0:10:47.000
as we expand into sort of international
0:10:44.920,0:10:49.399
markets we are looking at you know can
0:10:47.000,0:10:50.720
can we find Partners commercial who can
0:10:49.399,0:10:52.399
help us commercially to take our
0:10:50.720,0:10:54.440
products into different geographies but
0:10:52.399,0:10:56.839
nothing that we've really announced yet
0:10:54.440,0:10:59.200
and where do you see everl everlas lab
0:10:56.839,0:11:01.279
in in three to five years and how do you
0:10:59.200,0:11:02.800
see your operating system evolving like
0:11:01.279,0:11:04.920
I said you know we're we're we're a
0:11:02.800,0:11:06.720
technology company we have labs in our
0:11:04.920,0:11:09.040
name we're very experimental in nature
0:11:06.720,0:11:11.959
we're bringing up new technologies and
0:11:09.040,0:11:14.399
and and making our current set of
0:11:11.959,0:11:16.240
products better so our Ai and Robotics
0:11:14.399,0:11:19.680
will continue to get better we'll we'll
0:11:16.240,0:11:22.839
make our AI more accurate uh identify
0:11:19.680,0:11:25.120
more materials as as sort of the market
0:11:22.839,0:11:28.000
evolves uh we'll be able to pick
0:11:25.120,0:11:30.240
materials faster uh we'll be able to
0:11:28.000,0:11:32.240
occupy more and more sorting positions
0:11:30.240,0:11:34.680
within a facility So within a facility
0:11:32.240,0:11:37.639
there's different sort types of sorting
0:11:34.680,0:11:39.639
that happens um and currently we can we
0:11:37.639,0:11:41.519
can address about three of three out of
0:11:39.639,0:11:43.079
the five we'll be able to address all
0:11:41.519,0:11:46.519
five different sorting positions in a
0:11:43.079,0:11:49.800
few years but on top of that I think
0:11:46.519,0:11:52.360
where we see the biggest opportunities
0:11:49.800,0:11:55.920
are around the data opportunities so
0:11:52.360,0:11:58.040
data that powers murfs to be able to not
0:11:55.920,0:12:00.519
just what I mentioned optimize their
0:11:58.040,0:12:03.000
operations but also meet compliance and
0:12:00.519,0:12:06.480
increasing regulations right um
0:12:03.000,0:12:10.000
recyclers face a lot of uh audits based
0:12:06.480,0:12:11.480
on what the municipality wants or now as
0:12:10.000,0:12:14.560
we evolve into sort of more of a
0:12:11.480,0:12:16.079
producer funded model for for recycling
0:12:14.560,0:12:18.399
what the producers want to see they want
0:12:16.079,0:12:19.800
to see you know object BYOB data of
0:12:18.399,0:12:21.800
what's passing through a recycling
0:12:19.800,0:12:24.399
facility they don't have means to do
0:12:21.800,0:12:26.519
that right now um and we can provide the
0:12:24.399,0:12:29.079
data to be able to do that the data can
0:12:26.519,0:12:31.160
also power the supply chain right going
0:12:29.079,0:12:34.240
from as I mentioned recycling facilities
0:12:31.160,0:12:35.800
into reclaimers and ref reprocessors
0:12:34.240,0:12:38.040
into back into the packaging
0:12:35.800,0:12:39.519
manufacturers that supply chain has very
0:12:38.040,0:12:41.320
little visibility in terms of the
0:12:39.519,0:12:43.760
quality of the material and the supply
0:12:41.320,0:12:46.199
of material and therefore that whole
0:12:43.760,0:12:48.399
process is somewhat inefficient having
0:12:46.199,0:12:50.040
data at each step along the process and
0:12:48.399,0:12:52.560
providing visibility into that whole
0:12:50.040,0:12:54.560
supply chain makes the whole transaction
0:12:52.560,0:12:56.240
uh a lot more smoother so data can help
0:12:54.560,0:12:58.600
sort of create a transparent market for
0:12:56.240,0:13:01.079
the recycle Commodities we can also help
0:12:58.600,0:13:02.800
pack packaging manufacturers and Brands
0:13:01.079,0:13:04.720
understand the life cycle of the prod
0:13:02.800,0:13:06.399
products that they put out there so
0:13:04.720,0:13:09.079
packaging manufacturers can do a better
0:13:06.399,0:13:10.720
job of Designing products understanding
0:13:09.079,0:13:12.839
where they end up whether they end up in
0:13:10.720,0:13:15.120
landfills recycling facilities if in
0:13:12.839,0:13:17.440
recycling facilities where did it end up
0:13:15.120,0:13:20.040
we can help them track their sustainable
0:13:17.440,0:13:22.519
packaging goals uh so there's a lot of
0:13:20.040,0:13:24.720
opportunities for for the data that
0:13:22.519,0:13:25.760
we're generating across this value chain
0:13:24.720,0:13:26.600
and that's where we think they are the
0:13:25.760,0:13:28.360
biggest
0:13:26.600,0:13:30.800
opportunities and where do you see
0:13:28.360,0:13:32.959
challenge is considering that the rates
0:13:30.800,0:13:34.279
recycling rates are still low yeah I
0:13:32.959,0:13:37.880
think the biggest challenge really is
0:13:34.279,0:13:40.600
just an efficient recycling market right
0:13:37.880,0:13:44.160
the the biggest issues is really the
0:13:40.600,0:13:46.680
lack of highquality recycled content and
0:13:44.160,0:13:48.959
like I said that stems from the fact
0:13:46.680,0:13:50.839
that the recyclers can't make uh can't
0:13:48.959,0:13:53.199
sort these things at a low enough cost
0:13:50.839,0:13:54.880
because they have very high cost the the
0:13:53.199,0:13:57.240
processors can't buy enough of these
0:13:54.880,0:13:59.320
materials and therefore these materials
0:13:57.240,0:14:02.160
can't compete with Virgin
0:13:59.320,0:14:04.279
Plastics virgin aluminum virgin at at
0:14:02.160,0:14:06.720
the price points that it needs to while
0:14:04.279,0:14:09.160
there's huge demand for recycle content
0:14:06.720,0:14:11.880
like consumers and brands are all now
0:14:09.160,0:14:13.839
really focused on asking for more
0:14:11.880,0:14:16.160
recycled content in their packaging
0:14:13.839,0:14:18.560
material more recyclability of their
0:14:16.160,0:14:21.360
packaging material the supply chain is
0:14:18.560,0:14:23.320
broken and so I think that is really
0:14:21.360,0:14:25.240
just the the the biggest challenge is
0:14:23.320,0:14:27.279
how do you fix each step of that supply
0:14:25.240,0:14:29.120
chain so that you know ultimately the
0:14:27.279,0:14:31.600
packaging manufacturers can meet the the
0:14:29.120,0:14:33.480
demand for sustainability I I really do
0:14:31.600,0:14:35.759
think that's the biggest issue facing
0:14:33.480,0:14:37.920
recycling today I mean there there are
0:14:35.759,0:14:41.480
other challenges like consumer behavior
0:14:37.920,0:14:43.240
and and around recycling uh but those
0:14:41.480,0:14:45.360
will those will fix itself if the
0:14:43.240,0:14:47.360
economics is there and I feel like the
0:14:45.360,0:14:48.920
economics needs to needs to be put in
0:14:47.360,0:14:50.839
place and that's what you know I think
0:14:48.920,0:14:52.759
policy can help with a lot with that
0:14:50.839,0:14:56.120
right you know these these producer paid
0:14:52.759,0:14:58.279
recycling models help a lot with that um
0:14:56.120,0:15:00.160
just you know kind of growing consumer
0:14:58.279,0:15:02.800
awareness Ness around sustainability
0:15:00.160,0:15:05.399
helps a lot with that but ultimately
0:15:02.800,0:15:07.680
technology for operational technology is
0:15:05.399,0:15:09.040
going to put all of that in place so
0:15:07.680,0:15:11.720
well you've mentioned the challenges
0:15:09.040,0:15:14.320
with companies and individuals so how
0:15:11.720,0:15:16.240
can companies and well someone like me
0:15:14.320,0:15:18.079
play a role in improving recycling
0:15:16.240,0:15:21.600
Beyond just you know putting the things
0:15:18.079,0:15:24.160
in the right bins as a as a consumer I
0:15:21.600,0:15:26.440
think you know the easiest thing you can
0:15:24.160,0:15:29.720
do is you know change your own habits
0:15:26.440,0:15:32.600
but in terms of recycling um but you can
0:15:29.720,0:15:35.079
also you know sort of you know make a
0:15:32.600,0:15:38.319
change through your through your buying
0:15:35.079,0:15:41.759
habits and through your voice in the the
0:15:38.319,0:15:45.079
political system right so you know be be
0:15:41.759,0:15:47.880
having a you know asking your your local
0:15:45.079,0:15:50.279
governments to put in better recycling
0:15:47.880,0:15:53.639
policies increasing the recycling rates
0:15:50.279,0:15:55.920
making producers responsible for uh the
0:15:53.639,0:15:57.759
packaging that that's being put into the
0:15:55.920,0:16:00.600
waist stream these are all things that
0:15:57.759,0:16:03.079
you could do as a consumer uh on top of
0:16:00.600,0:16:05.519
sort of buying uh products that are more
0:16:03.079,0:16:07.120
recycled and putting them in the bin so
0:16:05.519,0:16:09.040
I think there there's you know I think
0:16:07.120,0:16:10.959
these changes are already sort of taking
0:16:09.040,0:16:13.759
place uh if you look at Europe most of
0:16:10.959,0:16:15.959
Europe is already in a western Europe is
0:16:13.759,0:16:17.680
already in a producer funded model where
0:16:15.959,0:16:21.120
in packaging manufacturers and brands
0:16:17.680,0:16:22.759
are responsible for recycling Canada is
0:16:21.120,0:16:26.279
going through this transition as we
0:16:22.759,0:16:29.240
speak in the US four states have passed
0:16:26.279,0:16:31.600
these producer responsibility laws uh
0:16:29.240,0:16:34.160
and a whole a whole lot of other states
0:16:31.600,0:16:36.240
are looking at ways to to put those
0:16:34.160,0:16:37.759
policies in place so some of this is
0:16:36.240,0:16:39.399
already in place and I think as
0:16:37.759,0:16:41.240
consumers we can be aware of what's
0:16:39.399,0:16:43.639
happening and and sort of demand some of
0:16:41.240,0:16:46.600
the changes as well considering that you
0:16:43.639,0:16:49.399
you work for an Innovative clean tech
0:16:46.600,0:16:51.480
company what advice would you give
0:16:49.399,0:16:54.440
around fundraising scaling or
0:16:51.480,0:16:56.160
partnership to someone who wants to grow
0:16:54.440,0:16:59.240
their startup within the community I
0:16:56.160,0:17:02.839
think one thing that we've real realized
0:16:59.240,0:17:05.480
is that we should solve a problem that
0:17:02.839,0:17:08.880
provides real economic benefits to our
0:17:05.480,0:17:11.400
customers and today with or without
0:17:08.880,0:17:13.799
policy and with or without sort of you
0:17:11.400,0:17:15.439
know this Goodwill around sustainability
0:17:13.799,0:17:18.079
I think we need to solve operational
0:17:15.439,0:17:20.679
issues we need to solve pain points that
0:17:18.079,0:17:22.919
translate into you know more Revenue
0:17:20.679,0:17:25.079
lower costs so that there're sort of a
0:17:22.919,0:17:27.000
justification an economic justification
0:17:25.079,0:17:29.320
to your products which which which is
0:17:27.000,0:17:32.240
which is I think Paramount and then
0:17:29.320,0:17:33.840
anything else around policy changes
0:17:32.240,0:17:35.559
anything around sort of you know sort
0:17:33.840,0:17:38.320
more awareness and and sort of more
0:17:35.559,0:17:40.760
demand towards sustainability that will
0:17:38.320,0:17:42.720
just be sort of you know wind Tailwinds
0:17:40.760,0:17:45.039
to your to your business that will just
0:17:42.720,0:17:47.160
drive your business faster but I think
0:17:45.039,0:17:49.799
you need to have the sort of the basic
0:17:47.160,0:17:52.080
economics for your products figured out
0:17:49.799,0:17:53.840
uh even without sort of you know looking
0:17:52.080,0:17:55.640
five years ahead right you needs to be
0:17:53.840,0:17:58.000
solving problems today and I think if
0:17:55.640,0:18:00.000
you can do that and you're solving a
0:17:58.000,0:18:02.000
climate problem I think you're in a very
0:18:00.000,0:18:04.240
good shape and do you feel like they can
0:18:02.000,0:18:05.960
join some communities online communities
0:18:04.240,0:18:08.480
offline communities invest in some
0:18:05.960,0:18:10.559
Partnerships research some slide groups
0:18:08.480,0:18:12.480
Discord channels or anything similar
0:18:10.559,0:18:15.000
because those those are the aners that I
0:18:12.480,0:18:17.000
usually get from people are my guests
0:18:15.000,0:18:18.760
here and they find those places to be
0:18:17.000,0:18:20.600
quite informative and good for making
0:18:18.760,0:18:24.039
connections I think unfortunately in the
0:18:20.600,0:18:27.640
recycling technology companies have not
0:18:24.039,0:18:29.720
played in this space historically uh and
0:18:27.640,0:18:32.000
so you know there isn't a ready place
0:18:29.720,0:18:34.039
where you can go to to sort of join a
0:18:32.000,0:18:35.960
community for Forward Thinking sort of
0:18:34.039,0:18:38.679
Technology Advocates there's a lot of
0:18:35.960,0:18:40.159
for forums and and there's a lot of
0:18:38.679,0:18:42.200
trade groups and there's a lot of sort
0:18:40.159,0:18:45.200
of traditional sort of conferences and
0:18:42.200,0:18:46.720
events that are focused on recycling uh
0:18:45.200,0:18:48.559
but a lot of these things that you
0:18:46.720,0:18:51.159
mentioned which is sort of the next next
0:18:48.559,0:18:53.200
generation of community doesn't doesn't
0:18:51.159,0:18:55.960
exist prolifically in the in the
0:18:53.200,0:18:57.960
recycling space uh but if your listeners
0:18:55.960,0:19:00.640
are interested we're happy to happy to
0:18:57.960,0:19:02.919
join and and and Foster a community how
0:19:00.640,0:19:06.240
can people reach out to you yeah it's
0:19:02.919,0:19:09.000
really easy our our website is Everest
0:19:06.240,0:19:11.120
labs. uh and on the top right button the
0:19:09.000,0:19:12.919
top right part of the web page there is
0:19:11.120,0:19:14.360
a subscribe button so you if you're
0:19:12.919,0:19:16.240
interested in the company you can do
0:19:14.360,0:19:18.120
that if you're interested in reaching
0:19:16.240,0:19:19.880
out to me personally you can get them
0:19:18.120,0:19:21.880
get on LinkedIn and and add me it's
0:19:19.880,0:19:24.159
really easy and yeah we've got a great
0:19:21.880,0:19:27.080
LinkedIn Channel as well for our company
0:19:24.159,0:19:28.840
so we post a lot of very informative uh
0:19:27.080,0:19:30.480
information there sort of what's
0:19:28.840,0:19:32.720
happening in the industry you know what
0:19:30.480,0:19:35.200
we're doing with with specific clients
0:19:32.720,0:19:36.600
of ours how we're solving their problems
0:19:35.200,0:19:39.159
you know any advancements we're making
0:19:36.600,0:19:41.840
in technology you can find them there so
0:19:39.159,0:19:44.440
uh yeah please do reach out we will link
0:19:41.840,0:19:45.919
all your well all your Handles in the
0:19:44.440,0:19:48.200
description of this episode so that
0:19:45.919,0:19:51.000
people you know can easily click and go
0:19:48.200,0:19:53.400
to your online space quickly and
0:19:51.000,0:19:56.360
effortlessly and my last question for
0:19:53.400,0:19:58.720
you is what emerging Technologies or
0:19:56.360,0:20:00.720
Trends are you most excited about of
0:19:58.720,0:20:03.440
course in Rel in relation to
0:20:00.720,0:20:04.840
sustainability not in general that's a
0:20:03.440,0:20:07.799
good question I mean there's there's a
0:20:04.840,0:20:09.919
lot of different AI being applied to
0:20:07.799,0:20:12.520
this technology which obviously ours is
0:20:09.919,0:20:15.440
one of them that I'm that I'm excited
0:20:12.520,0:20:19.400
about uh but there's just other things
0:20:15.440,0:20:22.880
that are not AI related I think that is
0:20:19.400,0:20:24.159
critical to packaging waste that I'm
0:20:22.880,0:20:26.159
excited about so when I first joined
0:20:24.159,0:20:28.720
ever Labs I you know I didn't know much
0:20:26.159,0:20:30.880
about sort of the recycling process so
0:20:28.720,0:20:34.960
you know the question I always had was
0:20:30.880,0:20:37.200
if I help recycle or recover a plastic
0:20:34.960,0:20:40.840
bottle will that plastic bottle be able
0:20:37.200,0:20:44.159
to you be used again in the supply chain
0:20:40.840,0:20:45.840
so so T the the typical way that when
0:20:44.159,0:20:48.039
somebody recycles of plastic bottles
0:20:45.840,0:20:50.200
they use sort of um they melt the
0:20:48.039,0:20:51.640
plastic and turn it back into pellets
0:20:50.200,0:20:53.480
when you melt the plastic you degrade
0:20:51.640,0:20:54.880
the quality so you can't you can't use
0:20:53.480,0:20:57.120
it for the same purpose that you had
0:20:54.880,0:20:59.320
used it so if you if you recycle a
0:20:57.120,0:21:00.799
plastic bottle uh like a water bottle
0:20:59.320,0:21:02.480
you can't use it to make plastic water
0:21:00.799,0:21:03.679
bottle again because the quality is not
0:21:02.480,0:21:05.000
there you have to use it to make some
0:21:03.679,0:21:07.280
other plastic and you can do this for
0:21:05.000,0:21:10.440
three or four Cycles before you get that
0:21:07.280,0:21:13.000
that plastic becomes unusable for
0:21:10.440,0:21:14.720
packaging well you know I think what
0:21:13.000,0:21:16.720
some of there's a lot of real Innovation
0:21:14.720,0:21:19.159
going on in chemical processing now
0:21:16.720,0:21:21.600
paralysis gasification which takes those
0:21:19.159,0:21:23.919
Plastics and either turns them back into
0:21:21.600,0:21:26.320
you know virgin almost virgin like
0:21:23.919,0:21:29.200
material so brand new plastic or turns
0:21:26.320,0:21:30.760
them into fuel for for creating energy
0:21:29.200,0:21:32.840
um so these are sort of paralysis
0:21:30.760,0:21:34.840
gasification processes which are getting
0:21:32.840,0:21:36.720
more and more efficient they're costly
0:21:34.840,0:21:39.039
to implement but that's just an economy
0:21:36.720,0:21:40.520
of scale thing right and I think those
0:21:39.039,0:21:43.720
those sorts of Technologies give me a
0:21:40.520,0:21:45.520
lot of I guess SA or just comfort that
0:21:43.720,0:21:47.880
the job that we're doing in being able
0:21:45.520,0:21:49.440
to recover more there's somebody else on
0:21:47.880,0:21:51.400
the other line being able to turn that
0:21:49.440,0:21:53.279
back into real products which I'm
0:21:51.400,0:21:55.200
excited about well thank you that sounds
0:21:53.279,0:21:56.880
promising I have to to say I read an
0:21:55.200,0:21:59.720
article recently that there's a
0:21:56.880,0:22:03.520
scientist in Japan who actually is doing
0:21:59.720,0:22:06.240
that he well discovered some sort of a
0:22:03.520,0:22:08.480
chemical process to recycle plastic bags
0:22:06.240,0:22:09.919
and Bottles directly into crude oil
0:22:08.480,0:22:11.960
Plastics come from you know it's a
0:22:09.919,0:22:14.960
hydrocarbon that comes from the the you
0:22:11.960,0:22:16.640
know the petroleum family right so so
0:22:14.960,0:22:19.080
it's it's it makes sense that you can
0:22:16.640,0:22:21.159
turn that back into energy well this is
0:22:19.080,0:22:22.960
the end of our conversation so thank you
0:22:21.159,0:22:25.760
once again for being a part of our
0:22:22.960,0:22:27.559
podcast and I hope we gave enough
0:22:25.760,0:22:30.840
information to our audiences about how
0:22:27.559,0:22:34.760
recyc works and what Everet lab does
0:22:30.840,0:22:34.760
thank you D I enjoyed talking to
0:22:36.170,0:22:39.309
[Music]
0:22:39.960,0:22:45.240
you well thank you for tuning in to the
0:22:42.720,0:22:47.039
green New Perspective podcast this
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episode is proud to sponsor by New
0:22:47.039,0:22:51.240
Perspective a Boston based marketing
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Bell so you never miss an episode that's
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all for me this time thank you for
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joining me and hopefully I'll catch you
0:23:13.039,0:23:16.600
in the next one bye
hello there and welcome to another
0:00:01.760,0:00:05.799
episode of The Green New Perspective
0:00:04.000,0:00:07.520
podcast I am thrilled that you're here
0:00:05.799,0:00:09.800
because that means that we share
0:00:07.520,0:00:12.000
Curiosity on cutting G Technologies
0:00:09.800,0:00:13.920
aimed at combating climate change and if
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you're new to our Channel consider
0:00:13.920,0:00:18.359
subscribing on YouTube Spotify Apple
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podcast Zen Caster or wherever you
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stream your podcast because we have a
0:00:20.800,0:00:25.439
treasure troll of over 20 episodes
0:00:23.080,0:00:27.519
featuring guests innovators from all
0:00:25.439,0:00:30.880
over the clean tech nature Tech agretech
0:00:27.519,0:00:34.000
and biotech space and this episode is no
0:00:30.880,0:00:36.640
different we are talking about recycling
0:00:34.000,0:00:39.640
so it's no surprise that recycling rates
0:00:36.640,0:00:42.559
are dis importantly low worldwide and us
0:00:39.640,0:00:45.879
is no different so we invited everless
0:00:42.559,0:00:48.160
Labs a company that utilizes AI data
0:00:45.879,0:00:50.160
analytics and Robotics to ramp up the
0:00:48.160,0:00:52.239
recycling rates so if you want to know
0:00:50.160,0:00:55.280
how technology can help us recycle
0:00:52.239,0:00:55.280
better stay
0:00:57.290,0:01:01.920
[Music]
0:00:58.920,0:01:01.920
tuned
0:01:03.039,0:01:08.320
hi and welcome to the green New
0:01:05.080,0:01:10.759
Perspective podcast so can you introduce
0:01:08.320,0:01:13.479
yourselves to our audience and then give
0:01:10.759,0:01:15.960
us a bit of an over overview of what
0:01:13.479,0:01:18.560
Everlast lab is and what you do thanks
0:01:15.960,0:01:20.600
for having me my name is a porba I run
0:01:18.560,0:01:23.280
products for a company called Everest
0:01:20.600,0:01:26.560
Labs here in Silicon Valley uh we're an
0:01:23.280,0:01:28.759
AI company that's focused on packaging
0:01:26.560,0:01:31.759
waste and eliminating packaging waste so
0:01:28.759,0:01:34.000
we apply technology AI technology and
0:01:31.759,0:01:36.960
automation Technologies like robotics
0:01:34.000,0:01:40.280
that help recyclers do a much much
0:01:36.960,0:01:42.079
better job of recycling packaging waste
0:01:40.280,0:01:44.240
through their facilities and put
0:01:42.079,0:01:46.560
materials back into the supply chain to
0:01:44.240,0:01:49.200
sort of foster the circular economy and
0:01:46.560,0:01:51.040
yeah we've been in business since 2018
0:01:49.200,0:01:52.719
we really started scaling our products
0:01:51.040,0:01:55.119
about a year and a half ago and we're
0:01:52.719,0:01:56.840
getting some really good traction
0:01:55.119,0:01:59.399
especially in North America around
0:01:56.840,0:02:01.000
deploying Ai and Robotics in recycling
0:01:59.399,0:02:03.200
facility and I look forward to talking
0:02:01.000,0:02:06.360
to you about it and what kind of
0:02:03.200,0:02:09.479
packaging waste are you recycling yeah
0:02:06.360,0:02:11.720
good question so in the US you know
0:02:09.479,0:02:14.640
something like a third of waste
0:02:11.720,0:02:17.640
generated is packaging waste so how the
0:02:14.640,0:02:20.519
EPA defines packaging waste is waste
0:02:17.640,0:02:22.120
that is thrown away within the year of
0:02:20.519,0:02:23.920
the product being bought so these are
0:02:22.120,0:02:26.800
all the things that are sort of
0:02:23.920,0:02:30.160
packaging the everyday items so aluminum
0:02:26.800,0:02:33.160
cans uh cardboard boxes plastic IC
0:02:30.160,0:02:36.319
bottles food containers shampoo
0:02:33.160,0:02:38.760
detergent bottles uh all of these are
0:02:36.319,0:02:42.319
sort of consumer products that use these
0:02:38.760,0:02:44.360
types of packaging and ideally uh all of
0:02:42.319,0:02:46.159
this should be completely recycled and
0:02:44.360,0:02:47.599
put back into the supply chain you know
0:02:46.159,0:02:50.480
we have complete control over what
0:02:47.599,0:02:52.640
materials we use how we collect them how
0:02:50.480,0:02:54.800
we sort them how we put them back but
0:02:52.640,0:02:57.040
because of operational and efficiencies
0:02:54.800,0:02:58.560
and because of Economics around
0:02:57.040,0:03:00.040
recycling that's not happening a
0:02:58.560,0:03:02.720
majority of this these product products
0:03:00.040,0:03:04.440
are landfilled or end up in oceans so
0:03:02.720,0:03:06.400
that's the problem we're trying to solve
0:03:04.440,0:03:08.519
and what inspired you to tackle this
0:03:06.400,0:03:11.440
massive problem yeah so the credit goes
0:03:08.519,0:03:13.400
to our founder JD ambati he founded
0:03:11.440,0:03:15.840
Everest labs in
0:03:13.400,0:03:18.280
2018 um you know really to tackle this
0:03:15.840,0:03:20.640
big problem of packaging waste it's one
0:03:18.280,0:03:22.920
of the the bigger problems facing Us in
0:03:20.640,0:03:25.480
terms of sustainability so that's why he
0:03:22.920,0:03:28.239
named the company Everest Labs Everest
0:03:25.480,0:03:30.519
as in you know large is overcoming a
0:03:28.239,0:03:32.640
large problem and then is really just
0:03:30.519,0:03:34.959
being experimental in nature how we
0:03:32.640,0:03:38.080
solve these problems right like I said
0:03:34.959,0:03:38.959
you know a lot of these materials should
0:03:38.080,0:03:41.319
be
0:03:38.959,0:03:43.080
recycled uh we have a lot of incentive
0:03:41.319,0:03:44.799
to do so from a sustainability
0:03:43.080,0:03:47.239
perspective but also from an economic
0:03:44.799,0:03:50.080
perspective right if you take something
0:03:47.239,0:03:52.239
like aluminum I think it takes something
0:03:50.080,0:03:54.360
like a tenth of the energy to recycle
0:03:52.239,0:03:57.640
aluminum versus produce new aluminum
0:03:54.360,0:03:59.840
cans so for so there's a lot of energy
0:03:57.640,0:04:02.879
being wasted in mining and and and
0:03:59.840,0:04:05.120
making new materials uh which you know
0:04:02.879,0:04:07.959
can be avoided same with things like tin
0:04:05.120,0:04:10.439
and stainless steel Plastics is another
0:04:07.959,0:04:12.680
one I think only about 10% of packaging
0:04:10.439,0:04:15.040
waste that we use as Plastics is put
0:04:12.680,0:04:17.359
back into the the economy the rest is
0:04:15.040,0:04:18.680
landfill or end up in oceans and so this
0:04:17.359,0:04:21.880
is a huge problem and a problem that
0:04:18.680,0:04:24.800
needs to be solved and you are using AI
0:04:21.880,0:04:27.240
well AI powered operating system to well
0:04:24.800,0:04:29.840
help help make the change so can you
0:04:27.240,0:04:32.080
tell me how does that works yeah yeah
0:04:29.840,0:04:35.039
sure happy do so you know we we use AI
0:04:32.080,0:04:38.039
to help recyclers do two things one is
0:04:35.039,0:04:39.880
operate their facilities with data and
0:04:38.039,0:04:41.720
then the second is to automate their
0:04:39.880,0:04:44.800
sorting processes and when I say
0:04:41.720,0:04:46.759
automate with data if you think of a
0:04:44.800,0:04:49.320
recycling facility as sort of a
0:04:46.759,0:04:51.880
manufacturing process they are running
0:04:49.320,0:04:55.000
their facilities without any data into
0:04:51.880,0:04:57.360
that process so what material comes into
0:04:55.000,0:05:00.360
a recycling facility How does it go
0:04:57.360,0:05:02.759
through each stages of sortation
0:05:00.360,0:05:05.520
um at the end what did you recover all
0:05:02.759,0:05:07.840
of that data is very manual and very
0:05:05.520,0:05:09.759
collected very infrequently and so they
0:05:07.840,0:05:12.320
don't have real-time data to help them
0:05:09.759,0:05:13.919
sort of optimize their plants uh and
0:05:12.320,0:05:16.479
there's a huge amount of efficiency in
0:05:13.919,0:05:18.560
terms of how much material you recover
0:05:16.479,0:05:20.360
uh and how much material you put back
0:05:18.560,0:05:22.560
into the system that that could be
0:05:20.360,0:05:25.000
gained by using data to know how to
0:05:22.560,0:05:27.000
operate these facilities second is a lot
0:05:25.000,0:05:28.680
of the processes are manual so when you
0:05:27.000,0:05:30.520
go to a recycling facility it goes
0:05:28.680,0:05:32.600
through a series of be belts and there's
0:05:30.520,0:05:35.360
usually people at the end of these lines
0:05:32.600,0:05:37.319
even in developed countries like the US
0:05:35.360,0:05:39.360
um you know all throughout Europe people
0:05:37.319,0:05:41.080
are still sorting these things manually
0:05:39.360,0:05:43.720
there are uh people sing at the end of
0:05:41.080,0:05:46.600
these lines wearing hazmat suit type
0:05:43.720,0:05:48.800
clothing uh picking out you know bottles
0:05:46.600,0:05:50.600
and and cans and plastic containers out
0:05:48.800,0:05:52.840
of these out of these recycling streams
0:05:50.600,0:05:54.720
which then ultimately end up in landf so
0:05:52.840,0:05:56.600
uh and that's a very ination process so
0:05:54.720,0:05:58.720
we introduced robotics very very
0:05:56.600,0:06:02.759
flexible very high-speed sortation
0:05:58.720,0:06:04.639
robotics that do the job and initially
0:06:02.759,0:06:06.919
you know one of the big challenges that
0:06:04.639,0:06:08.280
these recyclers have is hiring people to
0:06:06.919,0:06:10.919
do this kind of job because you can see
0:06:08.280,0:06:14.680
it's a very demanding job that has a lot
0:06:10.919,0:06:16.400
of repetitive motion and and uh very
0:06:14.680,0:06:18.560
sort of high demand on sort of your
0:06:16.400,0:06:20.919
physical body and so people over time
0:06:18.560,0:06:22.599
are just not very good at these types of
0:06:20.919,0:06:25.160
jobs and so we introduce robotics that
0:06:22.599,0:06:27.479
can work 247 that have a high success
0:06:25.160,0:06:29.560
rate uh to do that and when you combine
0:06:27.479,0:06:31.880
those two things the recycling
0:06:29.560,0:06:34.160
facilities can now capture a lot more
0:06:31.880,0:06:35.919
material at a much lower cost which
0:06:34.160,0:06:37.880
means they can put these materials back
0:06:35.919,0:06:39.560
into the supply chain at an economics
0:06:37.880,0:06:42.160
that makes sense for it to kind of go
0:06:39.560,0:06:44.479
through the whole recycling process and
0:06:42.160,0:06:46.639
what impact have you seen so far lots of
0:06:44.479,0:06:50.280
impacts I mean you know they sort of
0:06:46.639,0:06:52.680
impacts we help boost recovery uh so we
0:06:50.280,0:06:54.919
can a robotics can sort you know at
0:06:52.680,0:06:58.120
least as good as people typically about
0:06:54.919,0:07:00.240
two or three times better uh so the the
0:06:58.120,0:07:03.000
recovery at each step of the process can
0:07:00.240,0:07:05.039
be two or time two or three times higher
0:07:03.000,0:07:07.120
uh we help landfill less so if you
0:07:05.039,0:07:09.400
deploy our technology throughout the
0:07:07.120,0:07:11.919
facility typically companies can reduce
0:07:09.400,0:07:15.800
how much their their land filling by 30
0:07:11.919,0:07:17.400
to 50% so almost a third or a half of
0:07:15.800,0:07:19.720
what they were originally putting into
0:07:17.400,0:07:21.039
landfill uh and and because you now
0:07:19.720,0:07:22.520
you're not putting things to landfill
0:07:21.039,0:07:23.960
you're making money out of it right so
0:07:22.520,0:07:25.599
you're basically selling that back into
0:07:23.960,0:07:29.520
the commodity market so that increases
0:07:25.599,0:07:33.039
your your Revenue base as well we also
0:07:29.520,0:07:34.479
can improve the the availability of
0:07:33.039,0:07:36.759
suppliers for
0:07:34.479,0:07:39.039
Downstream uh recycling companies so how
0:07:36.759,0:07:41.080
recycling works is there's a usually a a
0:07:39.039,0:07:42.759
recycling company that sort you know
0:07:41.080,0:07:45.120
collect the things from from household
0:07:42.759,0:07:46.759
and Commercial waste they sort it uh and
0:07:45.120,0:07:48.840
they have facilities called mrfs
0:07:46.759,0:07:50.680
material recovery facilities so there we
0:07:48.840,0:07:53.240
you know just as I mentioned we help
0:07:50.680,0:07:55.280
boost recovery lower costs less landfill
0:07:53.240,0:07:57.120
then Downstream there are people called
0:07:55.280,0:07:59.280
reprocessors or reclaimers who are
0:07:57.120,0:08:01.479
buying those Commodities and turning
0:07:59.280,0:08:03.159
turning them into feed stock turning
0:08:01.479,0:08:05.520
them into materials that you can then
0:08:03.159,0:08:07.720
make packaging out of again those
0:08:05.520,0:08:09.440
companies have a different problem those
0:08:07.720,0:08:12.400
companies have a problem of not being
0:08:09.440,0:08:14.599
able to buy enough supply of good
0:08:12.400,0:08:17.039
recycled content because they're the
0:08:14.599,0:08:19.280
because the the murfs the recycling faes
0:08:17.039,0:08:21.720
don't can't provide enough for those
0:08:19.280,0:08:24.319
reprocessors and reclaimers we help them
0:08:21.720,0:08:26.520
by applying AI technology to their
0:08:24.319,0:08:28.720
supply chain to their feed in feed
0:08:26.520,0:08:31.199
material to help them decide the quality
0:08:28.720,0:08:33.000
of material that's coming in and also be
0:08:31.199,0:08:34.760
able to expand their supply base so we
0:08:33.000,0:08:37.719
can help those companies reduce their
0:08:34.760,0:08:39.959
cost of in feed by almost 2x um so
0:08:37.719,0:08:42.320
there's a lot of benefits Ai and and
0:08:39.959,0:08:44.720
Robotics can provide across this value
0:08:42.320,0:08:48.000
chain well thank you so I've recently
0:08:44.720,0:08:50.440
read that you raised like6 million doar
0:08:48.000,0:08:52.519
in series a funding so what kind of
0:08:50.440,0:08:55.480
things will we focus on with this new
0:08:52.519,0:08:58.720
injection of funds that info is is fine
0:08:55.480,0:09:00.600
if it's the series a funding was last
0:08:58.720,0:09:04.800
year so it's it's been a little bit over
0:09:00.600,0:09:06.480
a year that we raise old news little bit
0:09:04.800,0:09:09.800
of an old news but we've used that
0:09:06.480,0:09:14.360
funding to really prove out the value of
0:09:09.800,0:09:17.720
our technology with recycling facilities
0:09:14.360,0:09:20.640
um so we provide a solution that often
0:09:17.720,0:09:23.320
pays back uh based on the labor savings
0:09:20.640,0:09:25.519
based on the increased recovery uh less
0:09:23.320,0:09:27.320
than six months of purchase for these
0:09:25.519,0:09:29.519
recycling facilities and we've proven
0:09:27.320,0:09:32.680
that for small recycling companies so
0:09:29.519,0:09:34.800
companies that operate one two recycling
0:09:32.680,0:09:37.240
plants we've proven that with the
0:09:34.800,0:09:40.320
largest recycling companies that operate
0:09:37.240,0:09:42.079
you know 60 80 100 plants uh so we've
0:09:40.320,0:09:44.040
proven the value of the technology
0:09:42.079,0:09:46.240
across that recycling spectrum of
0:09:44.040,0:09:48.160
recycling companies we have customers we
0:09:46.240,0:09:51.320
have about 50 sites that we're deployed
0:09:48.160,0:09:53.959
in now we have proven the the economics
0:09:51.320,0:09:55.640
of our solution across these sites and
0:09:53.959,0:09:57.680
so that's what we did with series a
0:09:55.640,0:09:59.440
funding is really sort of scale prove
0:09:57.680,0:10:02.040
the value of a product and and and start
0:09:59.440,0:10:03.839
to scale it now the next F next stage
0:10:02.040,0:10:05.360
for our company is really just to scale
0:10:03.839,0:10:08.120
our commercial and go to market
0:10:05.360,0:10:10.680
operations so we can repeat this process
0:10:08.120,0:10:12.399
across all recycling companies in the US
0:10:10.680,0:10:14.839
starting in the US but also looking at
0:10:12.399,0:10:17.880
globally are there other collaborators
0:10:14.839,0:10:20.320
or partners that you could share with us
0:10:17.880,0:10:22.880
within the sustainability space so we
0:10:20.320,0:10:25.640
don't have any commercial or goto Market
0:10:22.880,0:10:28.240
Partners we sell directly into recycling
0:10:25.640,0:10:30.279
facilities uh we do have Partners on the
0:10:28.240,0:10:32.240
technology side of things so we work
0:10:30.279,0:10:33.839
with some of the best companies that
0:10:32.240,0:10:36.639
that that manufacture industrial
0:10:33.839,0:10:39.320
robotics company in Japan called fanic
0:10:36.639,0:10:42.200
uh we use Nvidia and Intel products for
0:10:39.320,0:10:44.920
processing our our AI uh we are looking
0:10:42.200,0:10:47.000
as we expand into sort of international
0:10:44.920,0:10:49.399
markets we are looking at you know can
0:10:47.000,0:10:50.720
can we find Partners commercial who can
0:10:49.399,0:10:52.399
help us commercially to take our
0:10:50.720,0:10:54.440
products into different geographies but
0:10:52.399,0:10:56.839
nothing that we've really announced yet
0:10:54.440,0:10:59.200
and where do you see everl everlas lab
0:10:56.839,0:11:01.279
in in three to five years and how do you
0:10:59.200,0:11:02.800
see your operating system evolving like
0:11:01.279,0:11:04.920
I said you know we're we're we're a
0:11:02.800,0:11:06.720
technology company we have labs in our
0:11:04.920,0:11:09.040
name we're very experimental in nature
0:11:06.720,0:11:11.959
we're bringing up new technologies and
0:11:09.040,0:11:14.399
and and making our current set of
0:11:11.959,0:11:16.240
products better so our Ai and Robotics
0:11:14.399,0:11:19.680
will continue to get better we'll we'll
0:11:16.240,0:11:22.839
make our AI more accurate uh identify
0:11:19.680,0:11:25.120
more materials as as sort of the market
0:11:22.839,0:11:28.000
evolves uh we'll be able to pick
0:11:25.120,0:11:30.240
materials faster uh we'll be able to
0:11:28.000,0:11:32.240
occupy more and more sorting positions
0:11:30.240,0:11:34.680
within a facility So within a facility
0:11:32.240,0:11:37.639
there's different sort types of sorting
0:11:34.680,0:11:39.639
that happens um and currently we can we
0:11:37.639,0:11:41.519
can address about three of three out of
0:11:39.639,0:11:43.079
the five we'll be able to address all
0:11:41.519,0:11:46.519
five different sorting positions in a
0:11:43.079,0:11:49.800
few years but on top of that I think
0:11:46.519,0:11:52.360
where we see the biggest opportunities
0:11:49.800,0:11:55.920
are around the data opportunities so
0:11:52.360,0:11:58.040
data that powers murfs to be able to not
0:11:55.920,0:12:00.519
just what I mentioned optimize their
0:11:58.040,0:12:03.000
operations but also meet compliance and
0:12:00.519,0:12:06.480
increasing regulations right um
0:12:03.000,0:12:10.000
recyclers face a lot of uh audits based
0:12:06.480,0:12:11.480
on what the municipality wants or now as
0:12:10.000,0:12:14.560
we evolve into sort of more of a
0:12:11.480,0:12:16.079
producer funded model for for recycling
0:12:14.560,0:12:18.399
what the producers want to see they want
0:12:16.079,0:12:19.800
to see you know object BYOB data of
0:12:18.399,0:12:21.800
what's passing through a recycling
0:12:19.800,0:12:24.399
facility they don't have means to do
0:12:21.800,0:12:26.519
that right now um and we can provide the
0:12:24.399,0:12:29.079
data to be able to do that the data can
0:12:26.519,0:12:31.160
also power the supply chain right going
0:12:29.079,0:12:34.240
from as I mentioned recycling facilities
0:12:31.160,0:12:35.800
into reclaimers and ref reprocessors
0:12:34.240,0:12:38.040
into back into the packaging
0:12:35.800,0:12:39.519
manufacturers that supply chain has very
0:12:38.040,0:12:41.320
little visibility in terms of the
0:12:39.519,0:12:43.760
quality of the material and the supply
0:12:41.320,0:12:46.199
of material and therefore that whole
0:12:43.760,0:12:48.399
process is somewhat inefficient having
0:12:46.199,0:12:50.040
data at each step along the process and
0:12:48.399,0:12:52.560
providing visibility into that whole
0:12:50.040,0:12:54.560
supply chain makes the whole transaction
0:12:52.560,0:12:56.240
uh a lot more smoother so data can help
0:12:54.560,0:12:58.600
sort of create a transparent market for
0:12:56.240,0:13:01.079
the recycle Commodities we can also help
0:12:58.600,0:13:02.800
pack packaging manufacturers and Brands
0:13:01.079,0:13:04.720
understand the life cycle of the prod
0:13:02.800,0:13:06.399
products that they put out there so
0:13:04.720,0:13:09.079
packaging manufacturers can do a better
0:13:06.399,0:13:10.720
job of Designing products understanding
0:13:09.079,0:13:12.839
where they end up whether they end up in
0:13:10.720,0:13:15.120
landfills recycling facilities if in
0:13:12.839,0:13:17.440
recycling facilities where did it end up
0:13:15.120,0:13:20.040
we can help them track their sustainable
0:13:17.440,0:13:22.519
packaging goals uh so there's a lot of
0:13:20.040,0:13:24.720
opportunities for for the data that
0:13:22.519,0:13:25.760
we're generating across this value chain
0:13:24.720,0:13:26.600
and that's where we think they are the
0:13:25.760,0:13:28.360
biggest
0:13:26.600,0:13:30.800
opportunities and where do you see
0:13:28.360,0:13:32.959
challenge is considering that the rates
0:13:30.800,0:13:34.279
recycling rates are still low yeah I
0:13:32.959,0:13:37.880
think the biggest challenge really is
0:13:34.279,0:13:40.600
just an efficient recycling market right
0:13:37.880,0:13:44.160
the the biggest issues is really the
0:13:40.600,0:13:46.680
lack of highquality recycled content and
0:13:44.160,0:13:48.959
like I said that stems from the fact
0:13:46.680,0:13:50.839
that the recyclers can't make uh can't
0:13:48.959,0:13:53.199
sort these things at a low enough cost
0:13:50.839,0:13:54.880
because they have very high cost the the
0:13:53.199,0:13:57.240
processors can't buy enough of these
0:13:54.880,0:13:59.320
materials and therefore these materials
0:13:57.240,0:14:02.160
can't compete with Virgin
0:13:59.320,0:14:04.279
Plastics virgin aluminum virgin at at
0:14:02.160,0:14:06.720
the price points that it needs to while
0:14:04.279,0:14:09.160
there's huge demand for recycle content
0:14:06.720,0:14:11.880
like consumers and brands are all now
0:14:09.160,0:14:13.839
really focused on asking for more
0:14:11.880,0:14:16.160
recycled content in their packaging
0:14:13.839,0:14:18.560
material more recyclability of their
0:14:16.160,0:14:21.360
packaging material the supply chain is
0:14:18.560,0:14:23.320
broken and so I think that is really
0:14:21.360,0:14:25.240
just the the the biggest challenge is
0:14:23.320,0:14:27.279
how do you fix each step of that supply
0:14:25.240,0:14:29.120
chain so that you know ultimately the
0:14:27.279,0:14:31.600
packaging manufacturers can meet the the
0:14:29.120,0:14:33.480
demand for sustainability I I really do
0:14:31.600,0:14:35.759
think that's the biggest issue facing
0:14:33.480,0:14:37.920
recycling today I mean there there are
0:14:35.759,0:14:41.480
other challenges like consumer behavior
0:14:37.920,0:14:43.240
and and around recycling uh but those
0:14:41.480,0:14:45.360
will those will fix itself if the
0:14:43.240,0:14:47.360
economics is there and I feel like the
0:14:45.360,0:14:48.920
economics needs to needs to be put in
0:14:47.360,0:14:50.839
place and that's what you know I think
0:14:48.920,0:14:52.759
policy can help with a lot with that
0:14:50.839,0:14:56.120
right you know these these producer paid
0:14:52.759,0:14:58.279
recycling models help a lot with that um
0:14:56.120,0:15:00.160
just you know kind of growing consumer
0:14:58.279,0:15:02.800
awareness Ness around sustainability
0:15:00.160,0:15:05.399
helps a lot with that but ultimately
0:15:02.800,0:15:07.680
technology for operational technology is
0:15:05.399,0:15:09.040
going to put all of that in place so
0:15:07.680,0:15:11.720
well you've mentioned the challenges
0:15:09.040,0:15:14.320
with companies and individuals so how
0:15:11.720,0:15:16.240
can companies and well someone like me
0:15:14.320,0:15:18.079
play a role in improving recycling
0:15:16.240,0:15:21.600
Beyond just you know putting the things
0:15:18.079,0:15:24.160
in the right bins as a as a consumer I
0:15:21.600,0:15:26.440
think you know the easiest thing you can
0:15:24.160,0:15:29.720
do is you know change your own habits
0:15:26.440,0:15:32.600
but in terms of recycling um but you can
0:15:29.720,0:15:35.079
also you know sort of you know make a
0:15:32.600,0:15:38.319
change through your through your buying
0:15:35.079,0:15:41.759
habits and through your voice in the the
0:15:38.319,0:15:45.079
political system right so you know be be
0:15:41.759,0:15:47.880
having a you know asking your your local
0:15:45.079,0:15:50.279
governments to put in better recycling
0:15:47.880,0:15:53.639
policies increasing the recycling rates
0:15:50.279,0:15:55.920
making producers responsible for uh the
0:15:53.639,0:15:57.759
packaging that that's being put into the
0:15:55.920,0:16:00.600
waist stream these are all things that
0:15:57.759,0:16:03.079
you could do as a consumer uh on top of
0:16:00.600,0:16:05.519
sort of buying uh products that are more
0:16:03.079,0:16:07.120
recycled and putting them in the bin so
0:16:05.519,0:16:09.040
I think there there's you know I think
0:16:07.120,0:16:10.959
these changes are already sort of taking
0:16:09.040,0:16:13.759
place uh if you look at Europe most of
0:16:10.959,0:16:15.959
Europe is already in a western Europe is
0:16:13.759,0:16:17.680
already in a producer funded model where
0:16:15.959,0:16:21.120
in packaging manufacturers and brands
0:16:17.680,0:16:22.759
are responsible for recycling Canada is
0:16:21.120,0:16:26.279
going through this transition as we
0:16:22.759,0:16:29.240
speak in the US four states have passed
0:16:26.279,0:16:31.600
these producer responsibility laws uh
0:16:29.240,0:16:34.160
and a whole a whole lot of other states
0:16:31.600,0:16:36.240
are looking at ways to to put those
0:16:34.160,0:16:37.759
policies in place so some of this is
0:16:36.240,0:16:39.399
already in place and I think as
0:16:37.759,0:16:41.240
consumers we can be aware of what's
0:16:39.399,0:16:43.639
happening and and sort of demand some of
0:16:41.240,0:16:46.600
the changes as well considering that you
0:16:43.639,0:16:49.399
you work for an Innovative clean tech
0:16:46.600,0:16:51.480
company what advice would you give
0:16:49.399,0:16:54.440
around fundraising scaling or
0:16:51.480,0:16:56.160
partnership to someone who wants to grow
0:16:54.440,0:16:59.240
their startup within the community I
0:16:56.160,0:17:02.839
think one thing that we've real realized
0:16:59.240,0:17:05.480
is that we should solve a problem that
0:17:02.839,0:17:08.880
provides real economic benefits to our
0:17:05.480,0:17:11.400
customers and today with or without
0:17:08.880,0:17:13.799
policy and with or without sort of you
0:17:11.400,0:17:15.439
know this Goodwill around sustainability
0:17:13.799,0:17:18.079
I think we need to solve operational
0:17:15.439,0:17:20.679
issues we need to solve pain points that
0:17:18.079,0:17:22.919
translate into you know more Revenue
0:17:20.679,0:17:25.079
lower costs so that there're sort of a
0:17:22.919,0:17:27.000
justification an economic justification
0:17:25.079,0:17:29.320
to your products which which which is
0:17:27.000,0:17:32.240
which is I think Paramount and then
0:17:29.320,0:17:33.840
anything else around policy changes
0:17:32.240,0:17:35.559
anything around sort of you know sort
0:17:33.840,0:17:38.320
more awareness and and sort of more
0:17:35.559,0:17:40.760
demand towards sustainability that will
0:17:38.320,0:17:42.720
just be sort of you know wind Tailwinds
0:17:40.760,0:17:45.039
to your to your business that will just
0:17:42.720,0:17:47.160
drive your business faster but I think
0:17:45.039,0:17:49.799
you need to have the sort of the basic
0:17:47.160,0:17:52.080
economics for your products figured out
0:17:49.799,0:17:53.840
uh even without sort of you know looking
0:17:52.080,0:17:55.640
five years ahead right you needs to be
0:17:53.840,0:17:58.000
solving problems today and I think if
0:17:55.640,0:18:00.000
you can do that and you're solving a
0:17:58.000,0:18:02.000
climate problem I think you're in a very
0:18:00.000,0:18:04.240
good shape and do you feel like they can
0:18:02.000,0:18:05.960
join some communities online communities
0:18:04.240,0:18:08.480
offline communities invest in some
0:18:05.960,0:18:10.559
Partnerships research some slide groups
0:18:08.480,0:18:12.480
Discord channels or anything similar
0:18:10.559,0:18:15.000
because those those are the aners that I
0:18:12.480,0:18:17.000
usually get from people are my guests
0:18:15.000,0:18:18.760
here and they find those places to be
0:18:17.000,0:18:20.600
quite informative and good for making
0:18:18.760,0:18:24.039
connections I think unfortunately in the
0:18:20.600,0:18:27.640
recycling technology companies have not
0:18:24.039,0:18:29.720
played in this space historically uh and
0:18:27.640,0:18:32.000
so you know there isn't a ready place
0:18:29.720,0:18:34.039
where you can go to to sort of join a
0:18:32.000,0:18:35.960
community for Forward Thinking sort of
0:18:34.039,0:18:38.679
Technology Advocates there's a lot of
0:18:35.960,0:18:40.159
for forums and and there's a lot of
0:18:38.679,0:18:42.200
trade groups and there's a lot of sort
0:18:40.159,0:18:45.200
of traditional sort of conferences and
0:18:42.200,0:18:46.720
events that are focused on recycling uh
0:18:45.200,0:18:48.559
but a lot of these things that you
0:18:46.720,0:18:51.159
mentioned which is sort of the next next
0:18:48.559,0:18:53.200
generation of community doesn't doesn't
0:18:51.159,0:18:55.960
exist prolifically in the in the
0:18:53.200,0:18:57.960
recycling space uh but if your listeners
0:18:55.960,0:19:00.640
are interested we're happy to happy to
0:18:57.960,0:19:02.919
join and and and Foster a community how
0:19:00.640,0:19:06.240
can people reach out to you yeah it's
0:19:02.919,0:19:09.000
really easy our our website is Everest
0:19:06.240,0:19:11.120
labs. uh and on the top right button the
0:19:09.000,0:19:12.919
top right part of the web page there is
0:19:11.120,0:19:14.360
a subscribe button so you if you're
0:19:12.919,0:19:16.240
interested in the company you can do
0:19:14.360,0:19:18.120
that if you're interested in reaching
0:19:16.240,0:19:19.880
out to me personally you can get them
0:19:18.120,0:19:21.880
get on LinkedIn and and add me it's
0:19:19.880,0:19:24.159
really easy and yeah we've got a great
0:19:21.880,0:19:27.080
LinkedIn Channel as well for our company
0:19:24.159,0:19:28.840
so we post a lot of very informative uh
0:19:27.080,0:19:30.480
information there sort of what's
0:19:28.840,0:19:32.720
happening in the industry you know what
0:19:30.480,0:19:35.200
we're doing with with specific clients
0:19:32.720,0:19:36.600
of ours how we're solving their problems
0:19:35.200,0:19:39.159
you know any advancements we're making
0:19:36.600,0:19:41.840
in technology you can find them there so
0:19:39.159,0:19:44.440
uh yeah please do reach out we will link
0:19:41.840,0:19:45.919
all your well all your Handles in the
0:19:44.440,0:19:48.200
description of this episode so that
0:19:45.919,0:19:51.000
people you know can easily click and go
0:19:48.200,0:19:53.400
to your online space quickly and
0:19:51.000,0:19:56.360
effortlessly and my last question for
0:19:53.400,0:19:58.720
you is what emerging Technologies or
0:19:56.360,0:20:00.720
Trends are you most excited about of
0:19:58.720,0:20:03.440
course in Rel in relation to
0:20:00.720,0:20:04.840
sustainability not in general that's a
0:20:03.440,0:20:07.799
good question I mean there's there's a
0:20:04.840,0:20:09.919
lot of different AI being applied to
0:20:07.799,0:20:12.520
this technology which obviously ours is
0:20:09.919,0:20:15.440
one of them that I'm that I'm excited
0:20:12.520,0:20:19.400
about uh but there's just other things
0:20:15.440,0:20:22.880
that are not AI related I think that is
0:20:19.400,0:20:24.159
critical to packaging waste that I'm
0:20:22.880,0:20:26.159
excited about so when I first joined
0:20:24.159,0:20:28.720
ever Labs I you know I didn't know much
0:20:26.159,0:20:30.880
about sort of the recycling process so
0:20:28.720,0:20:34.960
you know the question I always had was
0:20:30.880,0:20:37.200
if I help recycle or recover a plastic
0:20:34.960,0:20:40.840
bottle will that plastic bottle be able
0:20:37.200,0:20:44.159
to you be used again in the supply chain
0:20:40.840,0:20:45.840
so so T the the typical way that when
0:20:44.159,0:20:48.039
somebody recycles of plastic bottles
0:20:45.840,0:20:50.200
they use sort of um they melt the
0:20:48.039,0:20:51.640
plastic and turn it back into pellets
0:20:50.200,0:20:53.480
when you melt the plastic you degrade
0:20:51.640,0:20:54.880
the quality so you can't you can't use
0:20:53.480,0:20:57.120
it for the same purpose that you had
0:20:54.880,0:20:59.320
used it so if you if you recycle a
0:20:57.120,0:21:00.799
plastic bottle uh like a water bottle
0:20:59.320,0:21:02.480
you can't use it to make plastic water
0:21:00.799,0:21:03.679
bottle again because the quality is not
0:21:02.480,0:21:05.000
there you have to use it to make some
0:21:03.679,0:21:07.280
other plastic and you can do this for
0:21:05.000,0:21:10.440
three or four Cycles before you get that
0:21:07.280,0:21:13.000
that plastic becomes unusable for
0:21:10.440,0:21:14.720
packaging well you know I think what
0:21:13.000,0:21:16.720
some of there's a lot of real Innovation
0:21:14.720,0:21:19.159
going on in chemical processing now
0:21:16.720,0:21:21.600
paralysis gasification which takes those
0:21:19.159,0:21:23.919
Plastics and either turns them back into
0:21:21.600,0:21:26.320
you know virgin almost virgin like
0:21:23.919,0:21:29.200
material so brand new plastic or turns
0:21:26.320,0:21:30.760
them into fuel for for creating energy
0:21:29.200,0:21:32.840
um so these are sort of paralysis
0:21:30.760,0:21:34.840
gasification processes which are getting
0:21:32.840,0:21:36.720
more and more efficient they're costly
0:21:34.840,0:21:39.039
to implement but that's just an economy
0:21:36.720,0:21:40.520
of scale thing right and I think those
0:21:39.039,0:21:43.720
those sorts of Technologies give me a
0:21:40.520,0:21:45.520
lot of I guess SA or just comfort that
0:21:43.720,0:21:47.880
the job that we're doing in being able
0:21:45.520,0:21:49.440
to recover more there's somebody else on
0:21:47.880,0:21:51.400
the other line being able to turn that
0:21:49.440,0:21:53.279
back into real products which I'm
0:21:51.400,0:21:55.200
excited about well thank you that sounds
0:21:53.279,0:21:56.880
promising I have to to say I read an
0:21:55.200,0:21:59.720
article recently that there's a
0:21:56.880,0:22:03.520
scientist in Japan who actually is doing
0:21:59.720,0:22:06.240
that he well discovered some sort of a
0:22:03.520,0:22:08.480
chemical process to recycle plastic bags
0:22:06.240,0:22:09.919
and Bottles directly into crude oil
0:22:08.480,0:22:11.960
Plastics come from you know it's a
0:22:09.919,0:22:14.960
hydrocarbon that comes from the the you
0:22:11.960,0:22:16.640
know the petroleum family right so so
0:22:14.960,0:22:19.080
it's it's it makes sense that you can
0:22:16.640,0:22:21.159
turn that back into energy well this is
0:22:19.080,0:22:22.960
the end of our conversation so thank you
0:22:21.159,0:22:25.760
once again for being a part of our
0:22:22.960,0:22:27.559
podcast and I hope we gave enough
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information to our audiences about how
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recyc works and what Everet lab does
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thank you D I enjoyed talking to
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in the next one bye
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Host: Dunja Jovanovic
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