Aluminum price surge drives recycling startups to leverage AI for profit

Rising gas prices have frequently made headlines since the Trump administration intensified its conflict with Iran in late February, but that's not the only commodity affected by the turmoil. Roughly 10% of the world's aluminum is produced in the Gulf region, pushing prices for the metal to levels unseen in decades.

Even before the conflict in Iran, the U.S. government had designated aluminum as a critical mineral. A significant portion of U.S. aluminum demand is fulfilled through imports, and much of what the country manufactures comes from recycled material. For recycling startups, business conditions are favorable.

"Aluminum may account for just 1% of the waste stream, but it often trades at over $1,000 per ton," Matanya Horowitz, CTO of waste sorting startup Amp, told TechCrunch. "That makes it one of the most valuable single commodities."

Aluminum is one of the most recycled materials in the U.S., yet only about 20% is recovered, according to the EPA. Waste sorting startups have been promoting AI as a way to improve that rate.

Sortera, a metals recycling startup, recently opened its second facility in Tennessee, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. The new site doubles its processing capacity to 240 million pounds, of which 90% to 100% is aluminum — a sizable portion of the 4.3 million metric tons the U.S. consumed last year.

The Indiana-based startup focuses on sorting aluminum scrap. It uses a range of sensors, including lasers, cameras, and X-ray fluorescence, to feed AI algorithms that classify each potato chip-sized piece of scrap and identify its specific aluminum grade. By sorting grades more accurately, Sortera can increase profit per pound.

Amp has taken a different approach, using an AI-powered sorting system to process both recycling and general waste streams.

Its system uses sensors, including visible light and infrared cameras, to identify everything from wrappers to foil and differentiate plastics from aluminum. As the waste stream moves through the system on conveyor belts, robotic arms and puffers pluck or blow the materials into separate bins. Amp says its system recovers specific materials, including aluminum, with over 90% accuracy.

"Half of the aluminum in a metro area — in places with successful recycling programs — ends up in the garbage, never even reaching the recycling system," Horowitz said. For the metals industry, facilities like those being built by Sortera and Amp could strengthen supplies of a critical mineral used across the economy.

"These kinds of projects represent some of the largest sources of domestically produced aluminum coming online in any given year," he said.