Global software vendor foresees circular future

When the Ireland-based AMCS Group acquired Brady Recycling Solutions in 2018, the diversified software vendor also purchased a sizable presence in the North American recycling-specific software sector.

London-based Brady plc had itself acquired longtime U.S. metals recycling software firm Systems Alternatives Inc. (SAI) in 2012, eventually rebranding it as Brady Recycling Solutions.

In the years that followed, AMCS made moves not only to maintain and grow its U.S. metals recycling industry presence, but also to increase its geographic footprint and its horizontal presence in the secondary commodities sector with additional acquisitions.

In 2018, the AMCS purchase of U.S.-based DesertMicro marked another step in its journey to serve the recycling sector by connecting with DesertMicro’s customer base of some 250 waste and recyclables hauling firms in North America.

In 2019, AMCS grew its recycling customer base in its home continent of Europe when it acquired Recy Systems AG of Germany. At that time, Recy Systems had 600 corporate customers across Europe, Asia, Africa and North America in the recycling and waste management sectors.

The series of acquisitions has put AMCS in a position to compete in a wide range of activities and a long list of materials throughout the secondary commodities sector.

In its hectic acquisition phase in the late 2010s, AMCS co-founder and CEO Jimmy Martin said that a software firm with larger scale could serve recyclers well in providing access to a suite of potential automation benefits.

“The waste and recycling industry is going through a massive transition; companies are repositioning themselves in the growing, more circular economy,” Martin said after the DesertMicro acquisition.

“These organizations also have an increasing appetite to digitalize their business and automate business processes. It requires software companies like AMCS, with a certain scale, to be able to make the investments needed to support this transformation.”

AMCS Group, in addition to its waste and recycling industry presence, offers software to transportation firms, manufacturers and utilities.

This decade, AMCS has been tasked with providing software and services that can help recyclers of numerous materials in countries around the world operate their companies efficiently.

In addition to metals, AMCS offers options for recyclers of paper, plastic, construction and demolition (C&D) materials and to operators of material recovery facilities (MRFs) and haulers of all such materials.

Early this year, the company, a supplier of integrated cloud-based software and vehicle technology for the waste and recycling industry, launched its AMCS Platform Spring 2024.

AMCS says its latest product release has been designed to provide role-based automation for municipal and residential managers, fleet operators, transport managers and recycling traders.

“Our new purpose-built municipal solution is designed to help cities and private haulers to modernize and efficiently automate their service delivery capabilities while meeting the rising service expectations of residents and delivering on sustainability goals,” says Elaine Treacy, global product director at AMCS.

For haulers who service municipalities, AMCS says its new platform enables municipalities, their service partners and private haulers to automate every aspect of their service delivery to residential customers.

Traders, who frequently must stay in touch with global supply chains, also continue to receive attention, the company says.

“New trader-centric automation empowers recycling traders with enhanced insights and tools to trade smarter with greater efficiency,” Treacy says of AMCS’ 2024 offering.

Specifically its 2024 platform features a material management trading option that comes with trader-centric automation support. The single order management hub allows traders to manage all order types, and a new order fulfillment hub offers tracking and management tools for each order.

AMCS describes the current recycling landscape as one that will provide a return on the series of investments it has made to grow aggressively in the market.

“The transition to the circular economy is providing unprecedented opportunities,” AMCS says on its website, pointing to a forecast that places a $430 billion annual value on the metals recycling sector, more than $5 billion for paper and board recycling sector transactions, and the potential for the plastics recycling sector to surpass $33 billion in annual revenue.

Along with this "exponential growth," the recycling industry also is contending with changes involving extended producer responsibility (EPR), including deposit-return systems (DRS) and increasing regulations around processing and exporting materials.

“In order to seize the opportunity of recycling, there is a better way to automate a resource transformation factory where sequential and interdependent workflows and processes can be digitalized, automated and integrated to create maximum value and efficiency," AMCS says.