The impulse to recycle nearly everything is expanding, but recycling the right way — sorting all the different materials and categories of items — can be a bit of a headache for consumers, which is a confusing slog. For industrial recycling, it may be much more of a slog.

In the case of scrap metals, it is important to sort to eliminate pieces to its pure category. Traditionally, most of the scrap is exported and is hand-sorted or melted down into materials of lower quality and value with fewer possible uses. It is able to reduce both energy and emissions at the same time. Enter Sortera, a startup in Indiana that hopes to change the equation. It's among several companies that want to overhaul the entire process.

Sortera, for example, is using its process in Markle, Ind., to help sort tons of shredded aluminum by alloys, or types and grades of the metal. According to Michael Siemer, the CEO of Sortera, what happens is, end-of-life materials — their cars, washing machines, et cetera — it gets shredded, and all that mixed material now is no longer valuable, and nobody can use it. They sort it so all those pieces then can be reused again. And what’s more, some uses for that reuse would be domestic industries such as automotive, construction and aerospace.

According to Sortera, there are some 300 metal shredders in North America that produce about 11 billion pounds of mixed aluminum. The company purchases metal from scrap yards, sorts it with a proprietary technology, and sells itback to companies like Novellis, who can then remelt it with only 5% of the energy required for new aluminum. Siemer said that “What Sortera did was take existing sensors, add in some really powerful AI software, and together it makes this special technology that lets us sort the materials at high volume and at low cost.”

At its Indiana plant, Sortera is beginning with aluminum, but intends to expand to other scrap metals. Because the technology is modular, it also can be transferred anywhere the metal is found in the future. That might appeal to investors who want to watch the business grow rapidly.

As a matter of fact, they've introduced twenty-first-century technology into a industry that's literally as old as metal, which is a pretty amazing thing to do; They're also the first to know how to scale it. 

Furthermore, Sortera is also backed by RA Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Assembly ventures, T Rowe Price and Macquarie Capital. The company's total funding to date is over $73 million, which is a large amount of capital and makes them be able to do what they want.

According to Sortera, its process requires very little energy, uses no water and doesn't bury trash into landfills. Although half of the US shredded aluminum is exported to Asia, the company says it's the only US company with the technology to sort it for use at the highest quality possible meaning taking the aluminum from the hood of the car and putting it back to the process of making the hood of a car.

Generally speaking, the dream of recycling aluminum from cars and keep it all in the US is quite grand, especially for a startup. If they can handle the key tech and raise enough and adequate money, they are likely to achieve this. Anyway, it’s a nice and advanced idea, if it succeeds, it is also a giant step of the society.