A novel AI machine learning tool to maximise productivity and profitability for plastics recyclers and improve commercial viability of currently unrecyclable, low grade recovered polymer; reducing plastic waste by 283kt/annum and emissions by 870kt/annum.

在当前的新冠肺炎大流行中，塑料正在卷土重来。对卫生的关注和油价的下跌形成了一场完美的风暴，PPE、水瓶、外卖食品容器、预先包装的农产品和用一次性塑料袋包装的送货上门的产品的产量大幅增加，这将对环境产生长期影响。然而，塑料回收行业受到了严重打击。由于低油价导致原始塑料的价格下降，回收商目前无法竞争;这危及塑料回收商的经济可行性。此外，各行业还面临着新冠肺炎疫情的直接影响--回收商的订单量减少，因为他们的许多客户也在减产--需求减少和收入下降导致了裁员。该项目旨在解决回收商面临的这些挑战，使他们能够从新冠肺炎疫情的影响中恢复过来，开发一种新的人工智能机器学习工具，以提高他们的生产力和盈利能力，从而支持英国塑料回收行业“重建更好”。

In the current Covid pandemic, plastics are making a comeback. Concern for hygiene and plummeting oil prices have come together in a perfect storm, with a massive surge in production of PPE, water bottles, take-away food containers, pre-packaged produce, and home deliveries wrapped in single-use plastic bags; which will have long term environmental impacts.However, the plastics recycling sector has taken a severe hit. With the price of virgin plastics plummeting due to low oil prices, recyclers are currently unable to compete; jeopardising the economic viability of plastics recyclers. In addition, industries have been faced with direct disruption by Covid-19 -- recyclers are seeing lower order volumes as many of their customers are also operating at a reduced capacity -- creating redundancies from reduced demand and lower revenues. This has added severe pressure to an already highly price sensitive and competitive sector.This project seeks to address these challenges for recyclers, enabling them to recover from the effects of the Covid pandemic, developing a new AI machine learning tool that will increase their productivity and profitability and consequently support the UK plastics recycling sector in '_building back better_'.