Sonoco Partners with AMP Robotics to Enhance Paper Can Recycling

HARTSVILLE, S.C.—Sonoco (NYSE: SON) announced today it has partnered with AMP Robotics, a pioneer in AI, robotics and infrastructure for the waste and recycling industry, to create a new material category within AMP’s neural network specific to rigid paperboard cans. The U.S. partnership will result in increased recycling rates for the spiral wound paper canister with steel bottom produced by Sonoco and other manufacturers.

The use of recycled steel has a 45% lower environmental impact than producing the equivalent amount from virgin material, reducing the need to mine for virgin iron ore. Additionally, when compared to landfilling, recycling the paper container with steel bottom through the steel or other streams has a greater than 40% lower environmental impact than landfilling. Any materials recovery facility with an  AMP Cortex™ intelligent robotics system can now accurately and efficiently sort Sonoco’s paper can to the desired stream.  

“Sonoco is uniquely positioned as a leading recycler to help deliver end-of-life solutions across our consumer and industrial packaging platforms,” said Elizabeth Rhue, Staff Vice President of Sustainability at Sonoco. “This partnership represents another step forward in our growing portfolio of sustainable packaging solutions.”

“Our AI is unique in its strength, precision and flexibility to learn new packaging to the specificity of a manufacturer or brand, and Sonoco was early to recognize the implications of AI in the sorting process,” said Matanya Horowitz, Founder and CEO of AMP Robotics. “Manufacturers like Sonoco are directly influencing what is recoverable in recycling facilities and taking advantage of the ability to capture more of their specific packaging. Recyclers across the world with AMP Cortex gain this sorting capability, as they have many others. And because our AI is continuously learning, we’ll only improve the recovery of this and other materials over time.”

AMP’s AI platform, AMP Neuron™, encompasses the largest known real-world dataset of recyclable materials for machine learning. With an object recognition rate of more than 10 billion items annually, the company can classify more than 100 different categories and characteristics of recyclables across single-stream recycling, e-scrap and construction and demolition debris. In the U.S.,  AMP has successfully demonstrated the high-frequency recognition of steel-bottomed paper canisters and updated its software to enable platform-wide recognition of the material for sortation into any target stream.  

To learn more, email Sonoco.Sustainability@sonoco.com.

About Sonoco
Founded in 1899, Sonoco (NYSE: SON) is a global provider of consumer, industrial, healthcare and protective packaging. With annual net sales of approximately $5.2 billion, the Company has 19,000 employees working in approximately 300 operations in 34 countries, serving some of the world’s best known brands in some 85 nations. Sonoco is committed to creating sustainable products, services and programs for our customers, employees and communities that support our corporate purpose of Better Packaging. Better Life. The Company was listed as one of Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies for 2021 as well as being included in Barron’s 100 Most Sustainable Companies for the third year in a row. For more information, visit www.sonoco.com.

About AMP Robotics™ Corp.
AMP Robotics is modernizing the world’s recycling infrastructure by applying AI and automation to increase recycling rates and economically recover recyclables reclaimed as raw materials for the global supply chain. The AMP Cortex™ high-speed robotics system automates the identification and sorting of recyclables from mixed material streams. The AMP Neuron™ AI platform continuously trains itself by recognizing different colors, textures, shapes, sizes, patterns, and even brand labels to identify materials and their recyclability. Neuron then guides robots to pick and place the material to be recycled. Designed to run 24/7, all of this happens at superhuman speed with extremely high accuracy. AMP Clarity™ provides data and material characterization on what recyclables are captured and missed, helping recycling businesses and producers maximize recovery. With deployments across North America, Asia, and Europe, AMP’s technology recovers recyclables from municipal collection, precious commodities from electronic scrap, and high-value materials from construction and demolition debris.

Media Contact
Carling Spelhaug
carling@amprobotics.com