The circular economy is often framed as a collection problem: get more material into the right bins, and recovery rates will follow. The data tells a different story. Recovery is falling even as more attention and investment go into sustainability, and the reason comes down to what happens after material reaches a facility, not before. If a sorting system cannot correctly identify what is moving through it, valuable material gets treated the same as waste, no matter how well it was collected.

SUEZ is a French industrial giant with facilities in 40 countries across Europe, Africa, and Asia, handling tens of millions of tonnes of waste every year. Litech's detection technology is now installed on a dedicated test line at one of SUEZ's sorting facilities, where it is being validated in a real operating environment.

Battery fires and hazardous waste are becoming one of the biggest safety challenges for waste and recycling facilities worldwide. To help solve this growing problem, Litech has received NOK 14.4 million in funding to further develop its AI-powered waste detection technology.