**AMP ONE autonomously transforms single stream, municipal solid waste, mixed plastics, and other infeeds into valuable bales. | Source: AMP Robotics

AMP Robotics, an American company known for its waste sorting robots, has taken another step towards monopolizing the recycling market. They acquired a waste recycling facility in Portsmouth from RDS of Virginia to turn it into a demonstration site for their technology. Now they can not only sell robots, but also show how they work in real production — an ingenious marketing ploy, except that most of this "production" is our yesterday's garbage.

AMP Robotics founder Matanich modestly calls it a "vertically integrated platform," which translates into Human language to mean "we now own a landfill ourselves and can do whatever we want on it." The Portsmouth facility will become a testing ground for new AI algorithms that will learn how to distinguish a plastic bottle from an aluminum can with an accuracy beyond the reach of the human eye. Although, to be honest, most people are already doing a good job of this task — they just get paid less than it costs to maintain the robot.

AMP Cortex technology uses computer vision to identify materials at a rate of 160 objects per minute — about twice as fast as a human. However, the developers are modestly silent about how much energy this "speed" consumes and how often the system makes mistakes by sending valuable plastic to the general garbage.

The company's business model is particularly admired.: they don't just sell robots, they offer "robots as a service." Customers pay a monthly fee to rent the system, which supposedly makes the technology more accessible. Although, if you calculate the cost over several years, it becomes clear that "renting" is more expensive than buying — but who cares in the era of the subscription economy?

Interestingly, AMP Robotics has already installed more than 250 systems worldwide. This means that somewhere right now, hundreds of robots are diligently sorting through our garbage while their creators calculate the profits. Perhaps this is what an eco—friendly future looks like - where every plastic fork is seen off by a soulless machine with high-resolution cameras.

Critics may point out that automation puts people out of work in an industry where salaries are already low. Although, if you think about it, perhaps sorting garbage is not the career that university graduates dream of. As noted on jobtorob.com Perhaps it's time to learn more promising professions before robots learn how to perform them.

However, it cannot be denied that the technology has its advantages — for example, it allows you to extract more valuable materials from waste. Although I wonder what will happen when the AI decides that the most valuable resource in the landfill is the robots themselves, and starts sending them to be melted down.