SEATTLE (Recycling Monster): After Wisconsin, WM has completed upgrades at its Pennsylvania material recycling facility.

The company completed $23 million upgrades to AI-enabled optical sorter, which is expected to improve throughput and enable capture of more varieties of plastics. The upgraded facility will now be capable of sorting additional categories of polypropylene (PP) containers. It will now have capacity to process up to 25 tons of material per hour, company said in a recent press release.

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The upgrades are part of WM’s previously announced plan to invest over $1 billion in new and upgraded recycling facilities through 2026. As a result of these investments, the company targets an additional incremental annual processing capacity of 2.5 million tons, modestly lower from its earlier estimates of 2.8 million tons.

By way of automation, the company aims to earn higher premiums from cleaner materials. It plans to raise the amount of recyclables managed by it to 25 million tons per year by the end of the decade, as compared with the current levels of 15 million tons.

Tara Hemmer, WM’s chief sustainability officer noted that the proposed automation projects will help the company to quickly adapt to the rapid changes in material stream. The company anticipates increased demand for recycled materials in coming years, she added.