Glacier startup gets $16M to expand its AI robot recycling fleet
The planet is facing a mounting waste crisis. By 2050, the volume of trash we generate is projected to nearly double to 3.8 billion metric tons. Cutting back on what we consume would help, but let’s be honest — most of us aren’t great at reining in our shopping habits.
That leaves recycling as our next best option, but it comes with its own set of challenges. People regularly toss in dirty containers or misplace materials in the wrong bins. These mistakes drive up the cost of recycling, since someone eventually has to sort through the mess by hand.
To tackle this, several companies are turning to automation. One of them is Glacier, a six-year-old startup that builds affordable robotic arms powered by computer vision, capable of identifying over 30 kinds of recyclable materials.
The company has already deployed its machines in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Phoenix, and more recently, Seattle.
As Glacier aims to grow its robot fleet across more cities, it has raised $16 million in Series A funding, the company told TechCrunch.
The round was led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund and included investors like AlleyCorp, Alumni Ventures, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Cox Exponential, Elysium, New Enterprise Associates, One Small Planet, Overlap Holdings, Overture, VSC Ventures, and Working Capital Fund.
Sorting centers, known as materials recovery facilities or MRFs, are under pressure, Glacier co-founder and CEO Rebecca Hu-Thrams told TechCrunch. Governments are pushing for higher recycling rates, but MRFs struggle to keep enough workers on the sorting line.
Turnover is notoriously high — on average, an MRF has to hire five times a year to fill just one sorting role. The work is so unappealing that one operator told Hu-Thrams he worried about losing staff to a nearby warehouse opening, despite paying higher wages.
“Would you rather sort garbage on a conveyor belt, or lift boxes in a climate-controlled warehouse?” Hu-Thrams said. “That really highlights the challenge our customers face.”
Glacier sells its robots either outright or through lease-to-own deals. It encourages customers to handle basic repairs themselves and provides training and spare parts. For those who prefer not to, Glacier offers service and maintenance plans.
The company is also building a data platform that sells insights into waste flows to MRFs, consumer brands, and government agencies. For a sorting facility, this could mean pinpointing where valuable items like aluminum cans are getting lost. For regulators or brands, it might help determine whether supposedly recyclable packaging is actually making it through the system.
With a larger robotic presence, recycling efficiency could rise — mainly because the machines can sort faster and more accurately than humans.
“Every time we have humans review the results of our AI, they perform worse,” said Areeb Malik, Glacier’s CTO and co-founder. “AI has become incredibly good at telling apart things people can’t even detect.”