The Nation’s first recycler to use multiple AI robots for safe and efficient flat panel recycling
Beginning in 2023, eLoop was the first electronic recycler to utilize AI Robotics for the processing of Flat Panel Displays (FPDs) in the US. Since 2013, eLoop has operated a demanufacturing facility in State College PA, and this location will be the site of a regional processing center for FPDs and other types of electronic scrap. This facility will service recyclers, retailers, and OEM manufacturers within a 300 mile radius.
The company gained momentum in 2024 as we developed a partnership with the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. We deploy robots that remove screens from LCD TVs and control mercury exposure, and we have robots that remove fasteners facilitating the sorting of components into the proper commodities for scrap recovery. This represents phase 1 of 3 phases of innovation that we expect to deploy in 2025. The result is improved production capacity, health and safety, and the recovery of uncontaminated commodities.
As a spinoff of both eLoop and Carnegie Mellon, we formed a new company called roboLoop on January 1st 2025. This allows roboLoop to disrupt the electronics recycling industry with a fresh tech driven approach and outcome that is far more sustainable and environmentally friendly than the systems deployed by current competitors.
Since we start with clean, uncontaminated commodities, our research has provided a path to the extraction of indium, gallium, and other rare earth and critical metals essential for the electronics and renewable energy industries. Based in Pennsylvania, we leverage proprietary technology to efficiently and sustainably recover these materials, addressing the growing global demand for critical materials.
A second benefit of clean, uncontaminated commodities is the recovery of plastics. Specifically, the mixed black plastics that form the back cover of the TVs which make up 20% of the weight of a flat panel display. We are working directly with plastics experts, tech based companies, and plastic buyers to identify the polymers as they come off the production line. This will allow us to accurately sort the plastics by its chemistry, and process a high-quality plastic pellet to the recycled plastic market.
Flat panel displays are the fastest growing component of the electronic device waste stream. They have a short shelf life of 5 to 7 years before they are discarded. There is no aftermarket repair model, and they contain recyclable commodities like steel, aluminum, plastic, printed circuit boards, and glass. Now, roboLoop provides a sustainable and scalable process to meet this growing demand.
