[AI Revolution](70) Eight Tech Leading the 'Recycling Revolution' with AI Robots

Improving the Harsh Reality of Recycling Sorting Centers First
Increasing Actual Recycling Rates Using Robots
"We Will Innovate the Resource Circulation Business with Robots"

A facility where recyclable materials are sorted from waste collected by the public sector is called a recycling sorting center. Workers manually sort recyclables from piles of trash moving on a conveyor belt. Only about 20-40% of the materials can actually be recovered as recyclables. The rest are either buried or sent to incineration plants. This is because it is difficult to filter out all recyclables at the speed of the conveyor belt. Although South Koreans have one of the highest participation rates in recycling separation in the world, the actual recycling rate is surprisingly low due to the conditions at sorting centers.

Sorting recyclables at Aitron
Photo by Aittech

To increase the recycling rate, either more manpower must be added or the conveyor belt speed must be reduced. Since an enormous amount of waste arrives daily, slowing down the speed is difficult, and increasing manpower is costly due to labor expenses. It is also an industry suffering from labor shortages. A South Korean company has stepped up to solve these problems. The startup EightTech has entered the waste industry using artificial intelligence (AI) robots.

Founded in 2020, EightTech developed 'Eitron,' a waste resource circulation robot. This robot can sort up to 96 pieces of waste per minute. One unit can handle about 1 ton of work per day. The sorting accuracy for recyclables reaches 99.3%. So far, contracts for more than 10 Eitron robots have been signed, and some Eitron units are already active at recycling sorting centers.

Aitron product photo [Photo by Aittech]

Companies that have developed robots to classify recyclables instead of humans are rare worldwide. Jaeho Ryu, CSO (Chief Safety Officer) of EightTech, said, "Before us, only AMP Robotics in the United States had successfully deployed robots in the field," adding, "Our robot technology is among the highest levels globally." EightTech launched the AI robot business after witnessing the harsh reality of recycling sorting centers where recyclables are manually filtered one by one. Tae-hyung Park, CEO of EightTech and an environmental major, worked closely with AI and robotics professionals to develop the robot, and after about two years of product development, commercialization began last year.

The importance of waste resources is growing in the carbon-neutral era. The core of carbon neutrality is reducing fossil fuels, and one of the alternatives is waste resources. Recyclables are also a type of waste resource. Thanks to this, the business outlook is favorable. South Korea, known for its active recycling efforts, has over 3,000 recycling sorting centers. EightTech estimates that even if only the top 25% of companies automate with robots, the market size would exceed 1 trillion KRW. As of this year, EightTech sells robots at 250 million KRW per unit. The company aims to establish a domestic base first and then expand globally.

Park Tae-hyung, CEO of Aitron [Photo by Aittech]

Eitron prioritizes the on-site supply of AI robots and is also planning to operate recycling sorting centers directly. Continuous investment in R&D will be made to keep upgrading the robot's quality. To this end, EightTech raised 3.1 billion KRW in pre-Series A funding last year and plans to secure an additional investment of over 8 billion KRW this month. As word spreads about the robot's performance through waste sorting centers that have already adopted it, inquiries and orders are coming from various customers, including private companies and local governments. It is expected to achieve profitability by next year. Tae-hyung Park, CEO of Eitron, said, "We have secured capital to handle large orders," and added, "We will innovate the resource circulation industry, which is dangerous and arduous for humans, by using robots through continuous technology development and product distribution."