The price of aluminum has jumped by 20%, reaching levels not seen by the market in several decades. This is due to the military conflict in the Persian Gulf, which broke out in late February when the Trump administration launched a war against Iran. The Gulf region accounts for roughly a tenth of global aluminum production, so the disruption was immediately reflected in prices.
For recycling startups, the timing is ideal. Although aluminum accounts for only about one percent of total waste, it trades on the market for more than a thousand dollars per ton. “Although it is relatively scarce in waste, it ranks among the most important individual commodities of all,” says Matanya Horowitz, chief technology officer of Amp, a startup specializing in waste sorting.
The problem, however, is that despite being one of the most recyclable materials of all, the United States processes only about 20% of the aluminum that actually becomes waste. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirms these figures. Half of the aluminum in American cities never reaches the recycling system at all, instead ending up directly in municipal waste. “In places with well-functioning sorting systems, half of the aluminum simply lies in trash cans,” Horowitz confirms. And that is precisely where artificial intelligence comes into play.
Sorting aluminum with micron-level precision in milliseconds
Startup Sortera, based in the U.S. state of Indiana, focuses specifically on sorting scrap. Its system combines lasers, cameras, and X-ray fluorescence, with the resulting data processed in real time by artificial intelligence algorithms. These can classify every piece of scrap, even one roughly the size of a potato chip, and determine the specific grade of aluminum alloy.
Why is sorting by grade so important? Because mixed scrap has a substantially lower value. Customers in the automotive, construction, and aerospace industries need materials with precisely defined compositions. If they get them, the price per kilogram rises significantly. “Above 90% accuracy, margins grow exponentially. At 92%, they are decent, at 95%, substantial, and at 98%, really large,” explains Sortera CEO Michael Siemer.
The company has achieved sorting accuracy of over 95% and has been cash-flow positive since August last year, so far with just a single plant in Indiana. That is precisely why it opened a second facility in Lebanon, Tennessee. This doubled its total annual processing capacity to 240 million pounds, with aluminum accounting for 90% to 100% of the material. Compared with total U.S. consumption of 4.3 million metric tons per year, this represents a significant share.
Robotic arms and air jets instead of people
Rather than specializing in pure metal scrap, Amp uses its system across conventional recycling and municipal waste streams. This is more technically demanding, but potentially a far greater opportunity, precisely because half of all aluminum never reaches the recycling system at all.
Amp’s system uses both visible-light cameras and infrared sensors. It can distinguish aluminum foil from plastic packaging, or sheet metal from glass. Waste moves along conveyor belts, while robotic arms and air jets direct individual materials into different containers. The system’s accuracy in capturing specific materials, including aluminum, exceeds 90%.
The entire approach is based on a simple fact: if you want to increase the amount of aluminum recycled, it is not enough merely to sort what already reaches recycling facilities more effectively. It is also necessary to capture what never gets there at all. “These projects are among the largest sources of domestic aluminum production coming online in a given year,” says Horowitz.
Even before the conflict in the Gulf broke out, the U.S. government had designated aluminum as a critical mineral. A large share of demand is met by imports, while domestic production is itself largely dependent on recycling. The war has only intensified this pressure. For companies such as Sortera and Amp, this combination is moving their business from the category of environmentally beneficial projects into that of strategically important suppliers. Automakers, the aerospace industry, and the construction sector all need reliable, clean aluminum. And if it cannot simply be imported, it must come from domestic sources.
Sources: techcrunch.com and progressiverobot.com
