No recycling shortcuts, please

Interest in artificial intelligence has exploded. Between June 2022 and March 2023, monthly searches for ‘AI’ tripled, from around 7.9 million to over 30 million. How does this fascination with AI – and an increasing reliance on it – impact the world of recycling?

There are an estimated 25 000 recycling companies active worldwide, valued at EUR 65 billion in 2024. Many are family-owned, proud of their employees, advanced recycling lines and the reputations they’ve built brick by brick. Their mission isn’t getting any easier: products are becoming more complex, while consumers grow more impatient and are often confused.

Higher stakes

According to a survey released by waste management group Biffa, around 47% of UK citizens still struggle to understand which household materials are suitable for kerbside recycling. The company adds it is exploring AI systems to improve visibility across material flows in its operations.

Across the Atlantic, new data from the US Environmental Protection Agency paints a similar picture: an estimated EUR 37 billion investment is needed to significantly improve kerbside collection, drop-off points and processing infrastructure.

Mind you, a new study by MIT University in the US predicts that the hardware required for the rapidly growing use of AI will increase the global e-scrap mountain between 3% and 12% by 2030. If so, this represents an additional 2.5 million tonnes of e-scrap each year.  

Empty overview

Adding fuel to the fire, the internet landscape has shifted dramatically. Google’s AI Overviews are changing how people find information about recycling. One- or two-paragraph summaries about the industry now appear at the top of search results, drowning out original content—including practical guidelines written by recyclers.

So, instead of navigating to a recycler’s website to find out about best practices or local initiatives, anyone browsing online sees neat, generic texts with little nuance. Worse, some contain mistakes or outdated information, presented as fact.

As a sidenote: Google’s sustainability director Kate Brandt reports the company’s newly released Pixel smartphone contains at least 32% recycled materials, by weight. ‘This is the highest recycled content of any Pixel generation yet.’

She adds that recycling continues to gain popularity as a search term, with searches up 78% in 2024 compared to 2023. The country with the most searches for recycling-related topics is Japan.

New narrative

Recyclers are adapting. Professional websites are getting more investment. Reports now feature richer graphs and practical customer testimonials. Many recyclers are reaching out to news outlets to shape the narrative themselves.

Hyper-local campaigns are also gaining traction: posters display borough collection rates, QR codes link to short animations explaining how careful sorting reduces contamination, and monthly reports show exactly how many kilograms of bottles and cans from local neighbourhoods made it back into production.

Social media has become a vital tool. Campaigns now include in-depth videos of recycling processes, interviews with entrepreneurs and crew members, and podcasts on sustainability shared across YouTube, Spotify, LinkedIn, Instagram and even TikTok.

Urban mining doesn’t just mean knowing where to source material—it’s also about knowing where to find your audience and helping them to find you.

Telling the story behind every bottle, battery or smartphone before it’s scrapped has never been more important. Equally vital is showcasing the cutting-edge technology used to get the job done – AI-powered robots or not.

Building connections

On top of digital efforts, recyclers are regularly hosting open days and workshops for schools and community groups. Students can handle recycled pellets, watch robots sort materials and hear stories straight from the recyclers’ mouth.

That human element – the pride, dedication, and innovation – is essential to building a deeper understanding of the recycling sector. It requires connecting people through passion, curiosity and hands-on experience.

From what I’ve seen so far, there are plenty of talented people walking around who can help build the much-needed bridges of collaboration and content.