Sorting efficiency is a critical lever in advancing the circular economy, enabling cleaner material streams, higher-value recovery, and sustainable input for pyrolysis and recycling technologies.

In recent years, sorting centres have seen a gradual transformation of their waste input stream. They are now faced with larger incoming volumes of more complex materials, which are, therefore, more difficult to sort. At the same time, the legislative framework imposes increasingly ambitious recycling targets.

For example, under the European Green Deal, 55% of plastic packaging waste will have to be recycled by 2030. This results in a more efficient design for material recyclability, as well as enhanced sorting performance. With more technical and fragmented waste, guaranteeing the quality and capture of recoverable products is becoming a real challenge. Innovation, therefore, takes centre stage in the strategies of industrial recycling companies.

For over 20 years, the teams at Pellenc ST have been developing advanced sorting solutions to recover waste and support operators in their pursuit of optimal performance. With current infrared and visible spectrometry solutions, optical sorters are already capable of advanced sorting operations, including the separation of PET trays and bottles from single-use and multi-use containers. On the other hand, for specific complex separation requests, there is still no solution with existing equipment. This is where artificial intelligence comes in.

At Pellenc ST, it is utilized effectively, in conjunction with existing solutions, to enhance performance and enable operators to manage their industrial equipment and maintain quality control. By combining NIR/VIS and DEEP LEARNING technologies, optical sorters gain in analysis speed and can then provide a solution for the most complex sorting tasks. In concrete terms, the neural network is trained with millions of images to identify the unique characteristics of objects, such as shape, size, or other visual differences.

Last year, Pellenc ST launched its first solutions equipped with artificial intelligence for cleaning PE streams and the complex separation of paper and cardboard. By leveraging its CNS BRAIN technology, Pellenc ST is now tackling a new challenge in the field of PET sorting. We have developed a new artificial intelligence model capable of recognizing transparent PET bottles covered with a sleeve or a large label, which are challenging to identify using NIR/VIS alone. “Our model already detects more than 85% of sleeved bottles, and we expect to exceed the 90% mark shortly,” says Kevin Alazet, Artificial Intelligence Manager at Pellenc ST. This solution also helps to reduce losses, which have fallen from 7% to less than 2%. In addition, CNS BRAIN™ is one of the artificial intelligence options offered by Pellenc ST that does not require additional equipment and generates no extra energy consumption or maintenance needs. In this way, artificial intelligence can provide a significant boost to competitiveness while remaining frugal in terms of its carbon footprint.

For even more complex applications, Pellenc ST equips its machines with an additional camera and offers the AISORT. This innovation will enable the industry to address new use cases by providing new separation options. A notable example is the separation of food and non-food items. Food and non-food packaging is often made from the same or very similar material. This means that conventional sorting systems have difficulty distinguishing between and sorting this packaging. Thanks to this artificial intelligence module and multi-sensor fusion, the optical sorters supplied by Pellenc ST can now address this issue and produce high-quality recycled products through extremely accurate sorting.

Pellenc ST also offers quality control solutions equipped with artificial intelligence. Installed at the end of the sorting line, AISEE™ gantries monitor both the quality level of the stream and the overall efficiency of the sorting center. By providing real-time information on the stream’s composition, AISEE™ becomes a valuable decision-making tool. Supplemented by the support of experts well-versed in the issues of the waste industry, this data becomes intelligent and is a valuable source of knowledge. Once collected and analyzed, it is translated into personalized dashboards and reports, which are essential for operators to ensure the required levels of purity, maintain availability rates, and expedite commissioning phases. Finally, all the equipment supplied by Pellenc ST is ISO 27001 certified, guaranteeing the robustness, security, and sovereignty of data.

With these new solutions, Pellenc ST is enhancing its offerings and expanding its technological portfolio to pursue its mission: to support the sectors in recovering more materials, making the economy a little more circular and regenerative every day.

Circularity Starts with Precision — Is Your Sorting System Ready for the Future?

Contamination and inefficiencies in sorting are significant roadblocks to material circularity. With enhanced technology, waste becomes high-value feedstock instead of landfill overflow.

Klean Industries Supports Advanced Sorting Integration:

✅ Pyrolysis-ready preprocessing for clean plastic and rubber streams
✅ KleanLoop™ blockchain for end-to-end material traceability
✅ Strategic consulting for optimizing MRFs & feedstock streams
✅ Partnerships for integrated sorting + recovery facility rollouts

Connect with Klean Industries to enhance sorting efficiency and circularity in your recycling infrastructure » GO.