Current WTPs (Waste Treatment Plants) aren’t able to recover all the valuable waste they process, indeed more valuable materials are lost and landfilled or incinerated. The reason of this wasteful spending is clear: current methods do not allow an increase in material recuperation in a cost-effective way: the incremental cost of recovering more materials is bigger than the market value of the additional materials recovered. Losses can reach 2,5M€/yr of high-value waste PET/HDPE plastics, cans, cartons). Current technologies aren’t enough to meet EU regulations like directive 2008/98/EC, which requires that 50% of household waste is recovered by 2020. Based in our 1st product (Wall-B), SADAKO has developed RUBSEE, a disruptive real-time monitoring system (using Computer vision+Artificial intelligence) of waste flows in a WTP in order to optimize the performance/operation thereof and the recovery of different materials. RUBSEE will allow waste industry improve its economic, regulatory compliance and environmental performance with a solution that is cost efficient and complementary to actual solutions. In order to address present industry need, our goal is to scale from detecting just PET to HDPE, Cans and Bricks, increase/reach detection levels for each material up to >95%, and boost its TRL from 6 to 9. An average WTP plant, processes 7tn/h of urban waste with 39% content of PET, HDPE and Cans and recovers 6000 tn/year of PET, HDPE & Cans. Thanks to RUBSEE data, current equipment performance can be improved up to 20% by adapting their parameters to the variability of the waste flow on real time. This means 1200 Tn/year, increasing revenues up to 421,200€/yr for an average customer. Assuming that the complete RUBSEE installation cost amounts 142,000 € (10 RUBSEE units + 6000 €/yr Maintenance costs), the investment payback will be 4.2 months for our clients. Thanks to this RUBSEE project, we expect a boost of the incomes (NET profit associated to RUBSEE: 2,3M€ in 2022)

The technological advances that have been achieved over the past decades have led to a tremendous increase of both the types and the total amount of electrical and electronic equipment that is manufactured. Despite the importance of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) management, the issue of the WEEE recycling has not received that increased industrial attention. HR-Recycler will target the development of a ‘hybrid human-robot recycling plant for electrical and electronic equipment’ operating in an indoor environment. The fundamental aim of the system (and its great innovation potential) will be to replace multiple currently manual, expensive, hazardous and time-consuming tasks of WEEE materials pre-processing with correspondingly automatic robotic-based procedures (categorization of electric/electronic devices, disassembling them, sorting of device components), before the materials are eventually provided as input to a fine shredding machine and conventional material separation steps are applied (using air/water flows, oscillating movements, magnets, etc.). More specifically, the overall goal of HR-Recycler is to create a hybrid collaboration environment, where humans and robots will harmoniously share and undertake at the same time different processing and manipulation tasks, targeting the industrial application case of WEEE recycling. The primary output of the envisaged system will be to extract sorted electric/electronic device components [e.g. Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), Cu coils, capacitors, etc.] and concentrated fractions (e.g. copper, aluminium, plastics, etc.) of increased economic and environmental value; hence, contributing to the fundamental goal of the ‘European circular economy’ project and boosting economic activity in secondary markets. Additionally, mixed fractions (i.e. fractions with low concentration in valuable materials) will be collected, in order to be sent to other facilities for further dedicated recycling process.

SOPHIA addresses to the problem of photovoltaic panels End of Life, their management and the society awareness on electronic waste management. The project will implement several Advanced Digital Solutions, involving all actors in the value chain, in order to increase the reuse and repair rates of these products. For the evaluation of the State-of-Health and dismantling of PV panels, a robotic prototype based on IA model will be created. In cases where it is not possible to repair and reuse the PV panels , they will recycled by shredding sorting, and specific upcycling processes for each byproduct.", Because of their traceability and information available in the Digital Product Passport (DPP), the panels will be easily identifiable, hence the PV panels will be recycled by type and composition, increasing the quality of the obtained secondary raw materials, thus reducing waste generation. The repaired panels and secondary raw materials will be put up for sale on a marketplace, with the aim that all these products that are marketed have traceability provided by the DPP. Furthermore, in order to achieve goals and high circularity for the panels in the long term, an eco-designed and easy dismantling solar panel will be developed as prototype. It is expected that in the long term, the project will help to increase social and corporate awareness about the panel production impact, aiming towards a full ecodesign practise fully sustainable PV industry. Additionally, SOPHIA will contribute to the generation of new markets around the photovoltaic sector across Europe.