With aluminum prices rising by 20%, recycling startups are betting on artificial intelligence to profit

Rising gas prices have been a recurring headline since the Trump administration began its war against Iran in late February, but it is not the only commodity affected by the conflict. About 10% of the world’s aluminum is manufactured in the Gulf region, so prices for the metal have reached levels not seen in the past several decades.

Even before the war in Iran, the United States government considered aluminum a critical metal. A large share of American aluminum demand is met through imports, and much of the metal the country produces is recycled. For recycling startups, this is a good time to be in business.

“Aluminum may make up 1% of waste, but it often trades for more than $1,000 per ton,” Matanja Horwitz, CTO at waste sorting startup Amp, told TechCrunch. “It actually becomes one of the most important single commodities.”

Aluminum is one of the most recycled materials in the United States, but even then, only about 20% is recovered, according to the EPA. Waste sorting startups are promoting artificial intelligence as a way to improve these numbers.

Sortera, a metal recycling startup, recently opened its second facility in Tennessee, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. The new site doubles the company’s production capacity to 240 million pounds, of which 90% to 100% is aluminum. That’s a significant portion of the 4.3 million metric tons the United States used last year.

The Indiana-based startup focuses on sorting aluminum scrap. It uses a range of different sensors, including lasers, cameras and X-ray fluorescence, to feed artificial intelligence algorithms that classify each potato chip-sized piece of scrap to determine a specific grade of aluminum. By separating grades more accurately, Sortera can achieve more profit per pound.

Amp took a different approach, using an AI-powered sorting system to screen both recycling and general waste streams.

The system uses sensors, including visible light and infrared cameras, to identify everything from packaging to foil, distinguishing plastics from aluminum. As the waste stream flows through the system onto conveyor belts, robotic arms and blowers pick or blow the material into different bins. Amp says its system is more than 90% accurate in recovering certain materials, including aluminum.

“Half of the aluminum in the metro area — in places that have successful recycling programs — is just in the trash, not even touching the recycling system,” Horwitz said. For the metals industry, recycling facilities like the type being built by Sortera and Amp can boost the supply of important metals used in the economy.

“These types of projects are some of the largest sources of domestically produced aluminum to come online in a given year,” he said.