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Covid大流行中，塑料正在卷土重来。对卫生的担忧和油价暴跌形成了一场完美的风暴，个人防护装备、水瓶、外卖食品容器、预包装农产品和用一次性塑料袋包装的送货上门产品的生产大幅增加；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。由于低油价导致原生塑料价格暴跌，回收商目前无法竞争；危及塑料回收商的经济生存能力。此外，行业面临着新冠肺炎的直接破坏——回收商的订单量下降，因为他们的许多客户也在减产，需求减少和收入下降造成了冗余。这给这个本已对价格高度敏感、竞争激烈的行业增加了严重压力。该项目旨在解决回收商面临的这些挑战，使他们能够从Covid大流行的影响中恢复过来，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“更好地重建”。

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_'.