TOMRA: World’s first food-grade plastics sorting solution

TOMRA’s ongoing investment in GAIN, its deep learning-based sorting add-on for AUTOSORT™ units, has enabled the efficient and rapid separation of food-grade from non-food-grade plastics for PET, PP, and HDPE on a large scale, addressing the industry’s longstanding challenge of distinguishing between visually similar materials used in food and non-food packaging, which has been further complicated by hygiene concerns and stringent regulations in recycling food waste.

However, TOMRA’s GAIN technology, now rebranded as GAINnext™ to reflect its significant evolution, overcomes these challenges by enhancing the sorting capabilities of AUTOSORT™ units, enabling the identification of objects that are difficult or impossible to classify using traditional optical waste sensors. With purity levels exceeding 95%, achieved by combining traditional near-infrared, visual spectrometry, or other sensors with deep learning technology, TOMRA offers the most accurate solution available on the market today, opening up new revenue opportunities for its customers.

Additionally, TOMRA is introducing two non-food applications to complement its existing GAINnext™ ecosystem: one for deinking paper to produce cleaner paper streams and another for PET cleaning to achieve even higher purity PET bottle streams. Dr. Volker Rehrmann, EVP and Head of TOMRA Recycling, emphasizes the groundbreaking nature of this technology, underscoring TOMRA’s pioneering role in leveraging AI and deep learning to revolutionize resource recovery.

With its sophisticated use of deep learning, GAINnext™ enables food-grade sorting and bottle-to-bottle quality, tasks that have posed significant challenges for our industry for many years. The use of AI is driving material circularity at a time when it is needed most, with tightening regulations and increasing customer demand for technologically advanced solutions. At TOMRA, we’re proud to be driving the change in sorting.”

Solving the most complex sorting tasks

Adding to this, Indrajeed Prasad, Product Manager Deep Learning at TOMRA Recycling, highlights that deep learning technology not only streamlines manual sorting processes but also facilitates the production of high-quality recyclates through more precise sorting. With the capability to swiftly detect thousands of objects based on material and shape, GAINnext™ effectively tackles even the most intricate sorting challenges. Furthermore, its integrated deep learning software enables adaptation to future needs, providing a solution to meet the rising demand from consumer brands for increased purity in recycled content.

Field-proven technology

GAINnext™’s deep learning technology has been proven in the field for many years. TOMRA was the first in the industry to introduce deep learning technology in 2019 with an application to identify and remove PE-silicon cartridges from polyethylene (PE) streams. An application for wood chip classification soon followed in 2022. To date, more than 100 AUTOSORT™ units with GAINnext™ are installed at material recovery facilities across the globe.

Among the early adopters of the brand new applications are market-leading plants such as Berry Circular Polymers’ flagship facility in Leamington Spa, Viridor Avonmouth in Bristol – the UK’s largest multi-polymer facility – and the French Nord Pal Plast plant, which is owned by the global Dentis Group.

Feedback from the market on the latest GAINnext™ developments has been resoundingly positive.

Professor Edward Kosior, founder and CEO of Nextek Ltd and its NEXTLOOPP initiative that aims to create food-grade recycled polymer from advanced mechanical recycling, was among the most recent visitors to TOMRA’s test center and confirms: “TOMRA’s ground-breaking AI system, GAINnext™, has propelled the recycling industry to an exciting pivotal juncture in plastic packaging sorting and creates new opportunities for closing the loop on many plastics in food-grade applications. GAINnext™ is poised to accelerate the most simplified, cost-effective and highly efficient sorting system on the market. We’re immensely proud to see our industry moving forward on this transformational journey.”

More about GAINnext™ at IFAT 2024

For more information about GAINnext™, visit TOMRA at stand #B6.339/438 at the show which takes place from 13-17 May in Munich, Germany, or visit our website GAINnext™

For more information, please visit: https://www.tomra.com/en/waste-metal-recycling/media-center/news