Reclaim project to bring recycling to remote areas with its portable robotic plant
In sparsely populated regions in remote locations, waste management is a complicated task. This is more accentuated on islands such as the Greek islands where the number of inhabitants fluctuates greatly throughout the year; these islands do not generate enough waste to finance investments in recycling infrastructure. Therefore, the only recourse left is to move the waste to continental areas with the high costs involved and without much profitability.
The RECLAIM project has created a small, low-cost materials recovery plant that can be taken to all corners of the world, including the most remote ones. In addition, games have been developed to stimulate environmental care and improve the recovery of materials from waste.
The Technological Institute of Plastics, Aimplas, will participate in a project to improve the recovery of plastics and the economic cycle. Javier Grau, who is a researcher in the Mechanical Recycling department at Aimplas, explains that his work will be to define the requirements for a portable MRF robotic system and stimulate the valorization of plastics. Moreover, they will optimize system performance for different use cases.
In response to the European Green Pact, RECLAIM uses the latest technologies to develop portable and robotized recycling facilities. These facilities are composed of mechanical recycling equipment combined with robotic systems using artificial intelligence all stored in a container load that can be taken to different locations and assembled in a few hours. In addition, the mechanism will serve to recover recyclable materials with as few workers as possible. At the same time, it will have a long service life after the end of the project. Finally, this innovation will be validated throughout various territories located in the Ionian Islands.
The plan is to raise awareness of recycling among the population. To achieve this there will be a game designed to focus on the challenges of recycling. In addition, it will seek to involve the community with program activities to provide input to the creation of Artificial Intelligence and also include interactive learning.
The project was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 and was made up of a diverse group of entities. These include research centers, universities, regional authorities, companies, an international association and more. Members include FORTH (Greece), Aimplas (Spain), Axia Innovation (Germany), Ion (Greece), Iris (Spain), HRRC (Greece), KU Leuven (Belgium), Robenso (Greece) and ISWA Netherlands) and UoM – L-Universita ta’ Malta (Malta).
The RECLAIM Project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under Grant Agreement No: 101070524.
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