Dow And Google’s X Tackle Flexible Plastic Recycling

In a pioneering partnership that has the potential to dramatically redefine the future of plastic waste management, Dow and X, Google's innovation unit called the Moonshot Factory, have partnered to tackle one of the most enduring obstacles to plastics circularity: recycling films and flexible packaging. These materials, commonly found in everyday products like chips, granola, and pet food, are made up of multiple layers that often combine different plastics, metals, or paper—making them very effective as protective packaging but incredibly difficult to recycle. Though they're ubiquitous, almost 95% of these flexible plastics are sent to landfills, with only a paltry 5% recycled each year in the U.S.

The partnership is focused on addressing this challenge directly, targeting the 7 million tons of flexible and film plastics wasted annually in the U.S. Through the combination of Dow's materials science know-how with Google's state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and machine learning, the project aims to revolutionize the manner in which recycling facilities detect, sort, and process these difficult plastic materials. The work is already proving to be successful with a viable proof of concept, indicating potential for mass-scale impact.

Google's AI-based "molecular vision" technology, at the center of this innovation, has the ability to quickly and accurately detect the molecular structure of complex plastic packaging within milliseconds. This potent system draws on years of X's Moonshot for Circularity's work, having created a comprehensive database of plastics fueled by chemistry, machine learning, and the processing power of Google. This now powers an Oregon-based pilot that utilizes sensor tech at scale to sort plastic trash with levels never before possible speed and accuracy.

"By pairing Dow's material science know-how with Google's cutting-edge machine learning and AI capabilities, we're working to transform how recycling facilities sort through plastics, streamlining the process and making it more effective," said Han Zhang, Dow's Global Sustainability Director for Packaging and Specialty Plastics.

Dow has been integral to testing the system's capabilities to identify and forecast the molecular composition of multi-material packaging. The company has furnished real-world materials and data from its Pack Studios, which are being employed to train and perfect the AI algorithms behind the molecular vision technology. This work has produced what both companies characterize as "first-of-a-kind findings" which show the system to be capable not only of recognizing the types of material in plastic waste, but of estimating their composition percentages. Such ability is essential for maximizing recycling procedures and creating recycled materials or feedstocks of top quality that will be able to re-enter the manufacturing loop.

Dow's recent buyout of Circulus, the firm that upcycles plastic scrap into post-consumer resin, further enhances its capability to promote the creation of next-generation recycling infrastructure. It is part of Dow's bigger sustainability agenda as well as supplements more real-world data to add to the machine learning-based sorter.

The project is currently in pilot form, but the initial signs are encouraging. Both Dow and X see a day when this AI-based solution can be developed to the scale that recycling levels for films and flexibles will be dramatically boosted, materials which have long caused headaches for the circular economy. As the molecular vision technology continues to develop, the partners believe that it holds great potential to bridge existing large gaps in the recycling system, minimize plastic waste, and support more sustainable packaging solutions.

The partnership is one example of the potential for innovative change in eliminating plastic pollution brought about by cooperation between industries and advanced technology. As public conscience of environmental crises and pressure to adopt sustainable techniques continue to swell, such developments are a harbinger of better things to come toward a resilient and circular material economy.