Old milk bottles are being transformed into new plastic packaging at a Redcar recycling plant, with artificial intelligence helping to speed up a process that can return waste to fridges across the UK in as little as two weeks.
Biffa Polymers uses AI to inspect plastic travelling along conveyor belts, identifying bottles that can be recycled into new food-grade packaging. The technology is helping workers focus on quality and safety rather than repetitive checking.
Teaching AI to spot crushed milk bottles
The plant uses optical and infrared scanning alongside image analysis to identify different types of plastic and assess their composition. That is particularly useful when bottles have been crushed or distorted and no longer look like their original shape.
High-density polyethylene, or HDPE, bottles are selected for recycling into packaging such as new milk bottles. AI systems can be trained to recognise that a crushed container is still a milk bottle, even when its appearance has changed considerably.
Managing director James McLeary said the technology could analyse material at a speed and scale that would be difficult for people to match. It is used as part of the quality-control process, helping ensure that only suitable plastics move through the recycling chain.
More than 10 billion bottles processed
Material arriving at the Redcar site has already been sorted by type and colour. It is then shredded, washed and separated before being treated and turned into tiny plastic pellets.
Those pellets are sent to other factories, where they can be used to make new recycled packaging, including food-grade material. Biffa Polymers says the plant has processed the equivalent of more than 10 billion plastic milk bottles over almost 20 years.
The company is also investigating robotic systems that could use AI to physically pick out suitable bottles. The technology is already being used for safety monitoring, with cameras helping identify potential risks, such as someone entering an area where a vehicle may be operating.
People remain central to the process
Despite the growing role of automation, the Redcar operation still relies on about 200 workers. AI frees them from some of the more tedious tasks so they can check product quality and keep the recycling process running safely.
McLeary said the plant still needed people willing to carry out demanding work on the lines and sort materials responsibly. With the technology helping the process move faster, a bottle thrown away in the UK could be back in another person’s fridge within two weeks.
