“100% reuse is absolutely achievable”

Developers of a nimble robot that recycles e-waste believe it could at least double the life cycle of hard-to-recycle components and possibly lead to higher pay for retrained workers handling high-turnover e-waste. recycling facilities.

Rob Lawson-Shanks, startup co-founder Molg with Mark Lyons said Fast Company that he was inspired to find a solution growing problem of e-waste after 10 years as a consumer electronics designer, most of which ended up in landfills.

According to World Health Organizationformally, less than 23% of the 68.3 million tons of e-waste were collected. recycled in 2022, and informal disposal, dumping or storage often releases toxic heavy metals such as lead into the environment.

“I began to realize that I was contributing to this huge 60 million ton e-waste problem because of the way we designed, manufactured and ultimately did not recycle (products),” Lawson-Shanks explained to the Fast company.

Companies like Best buy, Staplesand many others now have programs to help customers recycle their old electronics, and Fast Company marked Apple has created a robot to recycle iPhones. However, the Molga system goes even further: focus on reuse instead of recycling.

“We’re seeing cases where I think 100% reuse is absolutely achievable, where you can get something that typically has a life cycle of about three years, and you can extend it to six to nine years of use.” “Lawson-Shanks said Fast company.

According to Molga websiteThis was made possible in part by the autonomous robot’s “high-precision technology”. technology“which maximizes the potential for component reuse.

“(We) really care about what we touch and then move so we can retest, requalify and redistribute,” Lawson-Shanks. said Fast company. “Ultimately, you want to try to preserve as much value as possible on things.”

While skeptics may point out that Molga’s robotic “microfactories” will require maintenance or become a new form of e-waste, Lawson-Shanks added In an interview, he said workers at e-waste recycling plants, who often leave their jobs after a few months, could earn higher wages if they learn to keep the system running smoothly.

Molg is currently in the process of expanding – something the company says it can quickly do at existing e-waste recycling facilities. According to reportThe seed round brought in $5.5 million from investors including Closed Loop Partners’ Ventures Group, Overture, Techstars, ABB, Elemental Impact and Amazon Climate Pledge Fund.

The company is also working with Dell and HP to develop products that its robots can disassemble more easily, such as laptops that don’t require glue or screws.

“Ideally, everything should be designed with circularity and automation in mind,” Lawson-Shanks. said Fast company.

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