RDS installs Amp sorting system at Greenville, North Carolina, site

Recycling and Disposal Solutions (RDS) of Roanoke, Virginia, has installed an advanced recycling system from Amp at its recently acquired recycling facility in Greenville, North Carolina, putting the facility a step closer to processing material once again.

In July 2023, RDS was awarded a contract to process recyclables for Pitt County, North Carolina, after 30 years processing via Eastern Carolina Vocational Center. RDS took over the site in August 2023 with the intention of refurbishing and upgrading it, including adding technology such as the sorting system from Louisville, Colorado-based Amp.

RDS then installed a complete Amp One system powered by the company’s artificial intelligence- (AI-) enabled sortation technology to process approximately 10,000 tons of single-stream and commercial material annually.

“RDS undertook a modernization effort to upgrade the facility to more efficiently process recyclables at a lower cost,” Amp says in a news release. “The partnership and technology solution ultimately enabled the preservation of recyclables processing in Pitt County.”

Amp One is a fully automated, facility-scale sortation solution, and Amp says with real-time supplier characterization and configuration, the system can capture more material and more value from “virtually any commodity or mix—all without touching a human hand.”

According to Amp, the system can process municipal solid waste, single-stream recyclables, plastic, fiber, metal, e-waste, film and custom recipes. Its facility designs also can scale to match capacity with supply, including software-enabled configuration changes and modular sorting lines, providing a flexibility the company says enables regional diversion strategies that can capture greater amounts of material and lower per-unit capital and operating costs.

RDS first began working with Amp in 2017, and two years later, RDS purchased its first AI-powered sorting system from Amp for its Roanoke recycling facility. The companies say they are collaborating on additional opportunities.

“Amp was flexible in delivering a solution that overcame the limitations of traditional sortation economics,” RDS President Joe Benedetto says. “AI provides a notable efficiency boost when incorporated into existing facilities, but it’s even more impactful when it’s designed from the outset—that’s why it’s so powerful to commission a facility with Amp’s technology.”

RDS expects to begin processing material at the Greenville facility in June, and from this new facility, the company will serve Pitt County’s 14 towns and cities as well as surrounding municipalities.

“High transportation and sorting costs often make recycling unviable in small and rural markets,” Amp founder and CEO Matanya Horowitz says. “This project demonstrates how we can profitably open recycling facilities in underserved communities—which is rare in the waste industry.”

More information about the Amp One system can be found here.