Bollegraaf And Greyparrot Enter Strategic Partnership In Artificial Intelligence (AI) To Transform The Global Recycling Industry

LONDON, UK & APPINGEDAM, NETHERLANDS--( BUSINESS WIRE )-- Bollegraaf , the world's largest manufacturer of recycling plants, has entered into a strategic partnership with Greyparrot , a pioneer in AI waste analysis, to transform the global recycling sector.

As part of the agreement, Bollegraaf will divest its AI computer vision business to Greyparrot and make a financial investment in Greyparrot, with a total value of €11.8 million ($12.8M), thereby acquiring a non-controlling minority stake in the company. Bollegraaf will serve as a strategic partner for the Greyparrot Analyzer , which currently o ers 100% visibility into waste streams at sorting and recovery facilities in 14 countries via camera systems and AI.

The deal includes Greyparrot's acquisition of Bollegraaf's computer vision intellectual property and their prestigious AI development team. Greyparrot will also open its first office in the European Union in the Netherlands.

With this groundbreaking partnership, both companies aim to modernize thousands of existing facilities (CC and CSS) with the superior capabilities of AI to significantly increase recycling rates and measure greenhouse gas emissions from waste. The collaboration will bring fully automated and agile smart recycling facilities to life, unlocking new value in waste streams and diverting millions of tonnes of waste from landfills, oceans and incinerators. In a development set to transform waste management, this represents a notable acceleration in the global shift from a linear to a circular economy. Together, Greyparrot and Bollegraaf are committed to developing further products that combine the forces of the two companies to make the idea of ​​fully automated and intelligent sorting plants a reality.

With over 50% global market share in the recycling plant sector, providing complete solutions, Bollegraaf is well positioned to provide the physical infrastructure, while Greyparrot's proven ability to integrate AI waste analysis into software systems and hardware, adds the essential digital layer. In 2023, Greyparrot Analyzers helped global facilities analyze more than 25 billion objects, characterizing them into more than 70 categories in real time to reveal seven levels of data, including material type, financial value, brand and emissions greenhouse gases.

By 2050, the world is expected to generate 3.4 billion tons of waste annually. With only around 5,500 facilities currently managing municipal solid waste globally, there is a critical need to build more next-generation facilities and modernize existing ones with new technologies, such as AI. This will allow us to optimize production processes and improve recycling rates to deal with the growing wave of waste.

Currently, only 1% of waste is tracked in facilities, and even in advanced economies, 40% of waste sorting is done by hand. AI, and the data it unlocks in real time, will help digitize and automate systems to capture vast amounts of lost financial value. For plastic waste in the United States alone, lack of visibility and automation contributes to annual losses of $80-$120 billion to landfills and incinerators. Greyparrot's Analyzer o ers 100% visibility into waste composition to unlock a new, smarter level of waste understanding that Greyparrot calls Waste Intelligence. With real-time, automated waste monitoring and AI-digitized systems, the industry can address the problem of "invisible waste" and transform a process that is currently labor-intensive.

With greater data transparency, waste managers can confidently demonstrate regulatory and contractual compliance. This vital data on waste in the post-consumer world will foster unprecedented collaboration across the waste sector supply chain and those who influence it, bringing together packaging producers and distributors, waste managers and relevant authorities to more sustainably recover and reuse waste waste materials.

Bollegraaf:

“With 63 years of industry experience, Bollegraaf continues to be a global leader in fully automated and innovative recycling systems. The future is clear: to further increase recycling rates, we need greater understanding and collaboration across the entire supply chain. We have sought to implement AI to facilitate automated, fact-based decisions, to provide our customers with a much more accurate overview of the composition of their waste and maximize their yield,” said Edmund Tenfelde, CEO of Bollegraaf Recycling Solutions. “We are excited to make this strategic investment and partner with Greyparrot to bring Waste Intelligence to both future and existing facilities around the world. We believe Bollegraaf's comprehensive knowledge of automating waste sorting and recovery center operations, The quality of the equipment and the one-of-a-kind engineering expertise enabled by Greyparrot's AI systems represent a one-of-a-kind synergy that is destined for success."

Greyparrot:

“In a world awash in waste, a large percentage of which is recoverable, the urgency for action has never been greater. It's time to make a revolutionary leap in how we value, capture and manage our waste. We're excited We look forward to partnering with Bollegraaf and adding more AI and deep learning experts to our team to address this crisis and pave the way for the largest AI launch in the waste sector to date,” said Mikela Druckman, CEO of Greyparrot. “Making AI available to more waste managers, more quickly, will provide the sector with the data insights needed to build and operate smart plants, capable of unlocking new value from recovered materials and reducing waste. environmental impact of waste. Collaboration with plant manufacturers and other key players is key to making this happen, and is one of the main reasons why Greyparrot is hardware agnostic, making it possible to integrate our platform with all types of systems. Progress in addressing the waste crisis can only happen if we work together and commit to systemic change driven by Waste Intelligence."

The transformation in the Italian market:

This collaboration will integrate with the existing partnership between Greyparrot and the Rixera company, operating as Greyparrot Agent for the Italian market. Rixera will play a fundamental role in the integration of technology in every Italian recovery plant and through plant builders who want to delve deeper into the topic.

Simone Pagani, owner of Rixera Srl, adds:

"The technological advancement introduced by artificial intelligence is transforming the approach to the design of selection plants, and in the near future, the use of such technologies will be crucial for the e cient management of the plants. The recent installations in Italy, some of which financed by the MASE PNRR government investment, already allow the collection of high quality data which is subsequently used in company decision-making processes. The use of multiple analyzers and the new Greyparrot Sync will lead to the automation and digitalisation of plant management of recovery of the future.”

About Greyparrot

Greyparrot , a leader in waste analytics, is applying AI globally to scale recycling and save millions of tons of waste from landfills and incinerators. By providing intelligent insights into the composition and value of waste streams, Greyparrot is helping the waste sector recover more value from waste and reduce its environmental impact.

The company's Waste Intelligence platform, including Greyparrot Analyzer and Greyparrot Sync (API), o ers real-time insights into more than 70 categories of municipal waste across seven data layers, including its financial value, brand and emissions of greenhouse gases, captured at various locations within a recovery facility. As of 2023, Greyparrot has analyzed over 25 billion objects, helping improve the e ciency of waste sorting to save hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars per facility by diverting millions of tons of waste from landfills, oceans and incinerators.

Using Greyparrot analytics, recycling managers, plant builders, and packaging manufacturers and distributors can make decisions to increase recycling e ciency, comply with environmental regulations, and improve the design of recyclable packaging.

Click here to see how Greyparrot's AI waste analysis works

About Bollegraaf

The Bollegraaf Group is a world-leading expert and innovator in the waste sorting and recycling sector. Bollegraaf's reputation is based on the unique quality of the equipment in terms of separation performance, robustness and ease of maintenance. Premium quality, complemented by Bollegraaf's engineering expertise, o ers the best solutions to each customer's specific challenges. Through continuous and intensive investment in innovation, Bollegraaf o ers cutting-edge recycling solutions for all types of waste streams, from household waste to paper and plastic to construction waste.

Bollegraaf was founded in the Netherlands in 1961 and includes the companies: Bollegraaf Recycling Solutions and Lubo Recycling Solutions. The company also has several subsidiaries in Europe. Van Dyk Recycling Solutions is the exclusive distributor of Bollegraaf which operates a very successful sales o ce and has a strong presence in North America based in Norwalk, USA.

Bollegraaf's vision is clear: There is no waste, only a set of valuable materials that must be selected, cleaned and prepared to enter a new life cycle.

Click here to see how Bollegraaf makes a difference with its solutions.

Contacts

Greyparrot
press@greyparrot.ai

Julie Skinner, for Greyparrot, UK/Europe
mobile: +44 (0) 7950 899130

Kyle Austin for Greyparrot, North America
mobile: +1 617 564 0446

Bollegraaf
marketing@bollegraaf.com

Anna Sergeeva, for Bollegraaf Recycling Solutions
phone: +31 596 65 43 33