March 7, 2025 – Revolution in Recycled PET Industry: Autonomous Sorting Technology Paves the Way
The recycled PET industry is undergoing a transformative shift as China’s cleaning capacity surpasses the 30 million metric ton milestone, casting a shadow of overcapacity across the sector. However, an industrial revolution sparked by autonomous sorting technology is quietly reshaping the recycling landscape.
Gone are the days of the clamorous tapping sounds in traditional sorting workshops, replaced now by the hum of sophisticated sensors. Seasoned sorting veterans are passing the torch to advanced spectral recognition algorithms. High-spectral sorting equipment scans automotive shredder residue at a rate of 300 times per second, achieving a material identification accuracy of 99.7%. This breakthrough performance is underpinned by a fundamental restructuring of the industry’s standardization system.
According to Color Masterbatch Industry Network, the former reliance on experienced workers’ intuitive methods has transitioned into a quantifiable spectral feature database, enabling production standardization. In terms of efficiency, autonomous sorting lines have brought about a significant leap. Real-time data on digital screens in PCR factories reveal that workshops adopting these lines have seen a 62% reduction in labor costs per unit of production, with batch stability increasing to 98.7%. This industrial transformation not only boosts efficiency but also revolutionizes quality control. Sorting accuracy has soared from 85% with manual methods to 99% with machines, prompting downstream enterprises to upgrade their material procurement standards.
Formerly dusty sorting workshops have been transformed into temperature-controlled, dust-free smart factories, enhancing ESG ratings and facilitating a shift in talent structure. Furthermore, intelligent sorting is driving the evolution of the industry’s ecosystem. Amidst the 30 million metric ton capacity glut, smart sorting is opening up new value spaces. In a demonstration base in South China, autonomous sorting lines have achieved food-grade purity for PET bottle flakes, with product premiums exceeding 15%.
The competitive landscape has shifted from mere capacity expansion to an arms race in process digitization capabilities. The latest white paper from an industry alliance indicates that enterprises adopting intelligent sorting systems experience a technology iteration speed three times that of traditional firms. This acceleration is fueled by the exponential accumulation of data assets, with each device generating 5TB of operational data daily to train smarter algorithm models.
In this quiet revolution, autonomous sorting technology has transcended its tool status, becoming the core engine of industry evolution. Standing at the cusp of industrial transformation, companies that have率先 completed digital reforms are writing a new value paradigm for the recycling industry. Here, there is no excess capacity, only untapped value mines waiting to be explored.