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E-Waste Recycling Plant Uses AI To Reduce Fire Risk, Recover Valuable Metals

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By Howard Chang/Ai Chi

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A recycling plant in southeast England is using AI-powered cameras to detect and remove lithium-ion batteries from waste, reducing fire hazards and enabling the recovery of valuable metals like lithium and cobalt. Experts say such tech could boost the UK’s circular economy and reduce the waste of US$1.3 billion in critical metals lost each year to inefficient recycling.

UK Firm Uses AI to Target Fire Risk and Metal Waste

 

REPORTER:  
Useful in our daily lives but dangerous when improperly discarded, batteries like these pose a threat to recycling plants and their workers. That’s why some plants, like this one in south-eastern England, are using AI to detect batteries before they’re crushed and can spark fires.

 

Scott Butler (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MATERIAL FOCUS):  
the portable tech is primarily powered by lithium-ion batteries, which again is a wonderful piece of technology. But if the wrong thing happens to it when it's no longer wanted, and that's if it goes into a bin, it gets crushed, it comes into contact with air and water, they can set on fire.

 

REPORTER:  
By mounting a camera over a conveyor belt, the firm uses AI vision technology to spot batteries among all the waste and uses a blast of air to remove them, preventing issues down the line.

 

George Hawkins (MACHINE LEARNING ENGINEER, LION VISION):  
So, we're using a camera system mounted above a belt and that is connected to a computer that is running an AI machine learning system that is scanning those images and looking for batteries and hazardous objects that we've trained the AI algorithm to detect.

 

REPORTER:  
The same tech does more than prevent fires. By identifying and isolating the batteries, it turns them into a valuable resource. After all, they contain — lithium, cobalt, gold, palladium, and rare earths. Precious materials now central to geopolitics, and they’re lost if not recycled properly.

 

Scott Butler (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MATERIAL FOCUS):  
Geopolitics is at play here. You know, inside electronics are precious metals, materials like lithium, cobalt, technology metals.

 

And we've got them here in the urban mines surrounding us. And at the moment, we're throwing too many of them away, which is crazy. Why this new technology innovation to recover more materials is just simply common sense. It will drive the economy and protect the environment.

 

 

REPORTER:  
In the UK alone, an estimated 1.3 billion US dollars in precious and critical metals is lost each year, due to inefficient recycling. Investing in tech like this could help recover these materials, reduce reliance on imports, and protect workers, all while ensuring the UK has access to the resources it needs for its most essential products.