Robots move in as waste firms struggle to find staff |
Robots move in as waste firms struggle to find staff
The dust at this busy recycling plant is pervasive and the steady noise of hoppers and conveyor belts makes this a challenging environment to work in.
The facility in Rainham, east London is owned by Sharp Group, a family-run skip and waste management firm.
Along the conveyor belts runs everything you could imagine, from shoes, to old VHS cassettes and blocks of concrete.
The team here processes up to 280,000 tonnes of mixed recycling every year with 24 agency workers on its rapid conveyor belts.
This is a hazardous industry. While Sharp Group is proud of its safety record, work-related injury and ill-health in the sector is 45% higher than other industries. And the fatality rate is a sizeable multiple of the national average.
These factors, along with the unpleasant nature of the work, mean keeping workers is difficult. Annual staff turnover runs at 40%.
"The belt is moving all the time, you're constantly picking. I go through a lot of pickers because they just aren't up to the job," says line supervisor Ken Dordoy.
The firm rotates pickers through different materials every 20 minutes, and I could see the belt is stopped periodically for respite.
A potential answer to that high-staff turnover, was also on the line when I visited. A robot, known as Alpha (Automated Litter Processing Humanoid Assistant) was being trained to pick through the rubbish.
Built by RealMan Robotics in China, it's being adapted for real-world recycling operations by the British firm TeknTrash Robotics.
Automated robots are not new to the sector, but the use of a humanoid is........