AI Takes Out the Trash: Largest U.S. Recycling Project to Extend Landfill Life for Virginia Residents

The Southeastern Public Service Authority of Virginia (“SPSA”), the regional waste authority for South Hampton Roads, has signed a 20-year contract with Commonwealth Sortation LLC, an affiliate of AMP Robotics Corporation (together, “AMP”), to provide solid waste processing services for SPSA’s eight member communities and their 1.2 million residents.

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Building on a nearly two-year pilot project in Portsmouth—which featured an AMP ONE™ system capable of processing up to 150 tons of locally sourced municipal solid waste (“MSW”) per day—AMP will now scale its technology region-wide. Under this long-term partnership, which will facilitate the largest recycling project in the country, AMP will deploy additional MSW sortation lines and an organics management system capable of processing 540,000 tons annually to divert half of the waste SPSA brings to AMP facilities.

AMP’s AI-based sorting technology uses cameras, robotics, and pneumatic jets to detect and remove recyclables and organics from bagged trash. With AMP’s solution, SPSA can:

• Extend the life of its landfill;
• Decrease long-term collection and disposal costs for communities; and
• Adapt to evolving community needs, including organic waste management, to better support a growing, thriving region.

Dennis Bagley, executive director of SPSA, said, “This project will enable us to improve how we manage waste from the communities we serve, turning all 1.2 million residents into active recyclers, while doubling the life of our landfill. This technology is demonstrating that there are effective ways to recover valuable resources from the trash, and we're proud to be on the cutting edge of providing high-quality and transparent waste management services.”

Partnering with AMP guarantees the region will recycle 20% of its waste—more than double the recycling rate of the highest-performing community in the region—while eliminating the need for separate recycling facilities and trucks to process most recyclables. SPSA’s own waste characterization study found high rates of recyclables, mainly plastics and metals, in the Hampton Roads waste stream—even in communities with curbside recycling.

Tim Stuart, CEO of AMP, said, “Recycling rates have been stuck for both communities and the nation at large for the last decade and a half. Projects like this one offer a new model for recycling, one that’s better aligned with local waste infrastructure. Our approach to processing MSW will significantly reduce the volume of waste SPSA must landfill, enable the creation of useful end products, and do so with meaningfully lower emissions levels than those resulting from competing solutions. At the end of the day, it’s a win-win for all involved, and will serve as a model for other communities seeking to adopt more sustainable waste management practices.”

Notably, this solution will allow all residential and commercial waste to be collected in a single bin. AMP will leverage two sortation facilities in Portsmouth to extract recyclables (plastics, metals, and fiber) and organics, while collaborating with SPSA to dispose of the residuals. A third facility, adjacent to a sortation facility on Victory Boulevard, will transform the captured organics via indirect heating into biochar, a charcoal-like substance that sequesters carbon.

By creating processing capacity at multiple sites instead of centralizing at one location, SPSA gains operational resilience, reducing downtime risk and ensuring reliable landfill diversion. Beyond extending the life of SPSA’s landfill, each diverted ton of MSW reduces or sequesters more than 0.7 tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gases—equating to more than 378,000 tons of carbon dioxide avoided or removed annually across SPSA’s processable waste—roughly the same as taking more than 88,000 cars off the road for a year.

AMP, which is backed by investors including Sequoia Capital, Congruent Ventures, XN, Blue Earth Capital, California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), and Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, expects to create approximately 100 jobs and build numerous transferable skills in the local workforce. Unlike legacy waste processing facilities where the workforce is concentrated in manual sorting roles, AMP’s solution relies on production operators who have the opportunity to learn how to optimize the technology and automated systems they manage.

About AMP™

AMP is applying AI-powered sortation at scale to modernize the world's recycling infrastructure and maximize the value in waste. AMP designs, builds, and operates advanced, cost-competitive facilities to process single-stream recycling and municipal solid waste. The company’s AI platform has identified more than 200 billion items and its systems have processed 2.8 million tons of recyclables. With three full-scale facilities and more than 400 AI systems deployed across North America, Asia, and Europe, AMP’s technology offers a transformational solution to waste sortation and changes the fundamental economics of recycling.

About SPSA

The Southeastern Public Service Authority (SPSA) manages solid waste services for more than 1.2 million residents across eight southeastern Virginia communities: Chesapeake, Franklin, Isle of Wight County, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Southampton County, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach. Established in 1976, SPSA is dedicated to delivering environmentally responsible, cost-effective waste solutions. Learn more at www.spsava.gov or follow SPSA on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

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