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The average American citizen creates around 5 pounds of waste per day. As a nation, We create 1.6 Billion pounds of waste on a daily basis, with a massive part of that waste being non-biodegradable plastic. We mix that dirty, crushed plastic in with our garbage, throw the bags into bins, and turn a blind eye as our overwhelmed recycling centers attempt to sort out the mess. When they fail, the plastic enters our ecosystems, crumbling to our water and into our food. When the system of recycling succeeds, the plastic is sorted, sold for a profit, reused, remade, and has the chance to realize its full potential as one of the incredible inventions of our species. Plastic is not the enemy of our future, it’s a tool - our civilization just needs to become better at managing that tool.
On this episode, We welcome Amanda Marrs of Amp Robotics. Amp Robotics is a company that uses machine vision and machine learning to train custom-built robots that can sort our trash faster and more accurately than has ever been done before. They can see and categorize our trash to any degree of specificity, creating perfectly sorted bales that can be easily sold, remade, or repurposed. This technology could be a pivot point for our civilization, as we take step after tiny step towards an economy where everything is reused, where few things are wasted, and where landfills are a relic of an uncertain past.
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