CDD-SORT: A Next-Generation System to Detect Hazardous & Recyclable Materials in Discarded C&D Debris

The Construction and Demolition Debris Support Vector Machine Optical Recycling Technology (CDDSORT) is our proposed system that detects hazardous, problematic, and recyclable components in the 150+ million tons of construction and demolition (C&D) debris discarded annually at US landfills and recycling facilities. Our system and technology leverages a combination of emerging computer vision techniques, machine learning algorithms, and deep subject matter expertise. CDD-SORT will increase by multiple orders of magnitude the amount of available waste characterization data and performs comparably to current umancentered visual waste characterization approaches. We are targeting the approximately 2,000 operating C&D disposal and recycling facilities as end users, and estimate an addressable US market opportunity of more than $60 million annually - customer discovery efforts to date show a strong willingness to pay from our targeted end users. Deploying CDD-SORT will foster a more circular economy through the increased recovery of valuable recyclable materials, in addition to enhancing the removal of hazardous or problematic materials in the waste stream. These outcomes are expected to result in substantial reductions in CO2 emissions across construction material life cycles, in addition to mitigating the build-up of toxics in the environment