Technology innovations to help you recycle better with Paper Round

This week, we’re announcing our 7th #SustainABLEpathway commitment, to 'innovate and invest in new technologies and equipment to further improve recycling outcomes and avoid the production of higher carbon virgin materials.'

Innovation is in our blood. It has been the foundation of the company since our inception in 1988, where we started out just collecting white paper from offices as an environmental project. Since then, we’ve consistently been one of the first recycling companies to bring to market new recycling streams, such as coffee grounds, coffee cups and compostables. And we don’t plan to slow down anytime soon... 

Our latest commitment is our promise to customers that we will continue to search for the latest in innovation and technology. Helping to improve their recycling rates, efficiencies and ensure more recycled materials are out there in the circular economy.

Let’s see what we've been up to...

Just two years ago our Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) received a £2.5 million upgrade to help increase our capacity by up to 300% and improve recovery rates for our clients. Now equipped with programmable optical sorters, a ballistic separator separating 2D from 3D items and an eddy current used to separate aluminium cans – our MRF has it all! Or so we thought...

Take a virtual tour of our facility here. 

In 2020 we teamed up with AI tech company Greyparrot and Middlesex University to take part in robotics trials at our MRF. Equipped with £0.5m from Innovate UK, low-cost robotics were installed at our facility to detect and recover plastics from mixed streams. It’s hoped that these trials will help optimise the robotics and allow for greater accuracy of sorting. Low-cost sorting robotics may now be on the market sooner than we imagined!

In 2021, we received yet another round of funding, this time from WRAP and Vegware to help build a brand-new ‘mini-MRF’, specially designed to sort compostables. The first of its kind in the UK, this sorting line has helped us to vamp up our compostables service and ensure the highest quality material is provided to the composting site for re-processing. Find out more by reading our latest blog.

We’ve recently launched a new customer data integration system. It provides customers with an innovative and flexible set of options to access, analyse, and utilise information about their recycling data. We’ll integrate our waste and recycling data directly into their systems. This saves on admin time for our customers, plus enables data to be fed more regularly than the typical monthly report. This demonstrates our flexible approach and allows us to develop true partnerships with our customers.  

These are just some of our most recent innovations in technology and equipment – but follow us on Twitter or Linkedin to keep up to date with all our latest news…