Prime Highlights:
Indiana-based startup Sortera is innovating aluminum recycling by improving sorting technology, helping maintain material quality.
The company aims to recycle aluminum domestically, reducing reliance on overseas processing.
Sortera’s AI-driven technology sorts mixed aluminum scrap into different alloys, ensuring high-quality reuse in industries like automotive, aerospace, and construction.
Key Background:
Sortera, a startup based in Markle, Indiana, is reshaping the aluminum recycling industry by developing a smarter, more efficient sorting process. The company’s innovative technology targets the challenges of separating and recycling scrap metal, especially aluminum, which is often shredded and mixed with other materials, diminishing its value. Traditionally, such mixed metals are sent overseas for sorting or processed into lower-grade materials with limited industrial applications.
Sortera is changing this by using advanced AI-powered technology and sensors to sort shredded aluminum into different alloys or grades, making the metal suitable for high-quality reuse. This process not only preserves the material’s value but also reduces energy consumption and emissions, crucially using just 5% of the energy needed to produce new aluminum.
The company focuses on scrap aluminum from end-of-life products, such as cars and appliances, and directs it to domestic industries like automotive, aerospace, and construction. With around 300 metal shredders in North America producing billions of pounds of mixed aluminum annually, Sortera’s sorting technology stands out as the only U.S. solution capable of sorting the material for the highest quality re-use, helping reduce the need for overseas processing.
The modular nature of Sortera’s technology allows it to be deployed anywhere metal is located, offering significant scalability. Backed by major investors, including RA Capital and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Sortera has secured over $73 million in funding. The company plans to expand its technology to other scrap metals, further revolutionizing the recycling sector.