Al Tackles Plastic Waste: Dow and Google's Smart Recycling Push

Dow and Google X deploy Al to sort complex plastics, aiming to boost recycling rates and support a circular economy.

15 May 2025

Plastic film is everywhere: wrapped around food, lining parcels, sealing medical kits. Yet it is rarely recycled. Multi-layered and often contaminated, flexible packaging is costly to process and usually ends up in landfill. Less than 5% of it is recycled in America.

Dow, a chemicals giant, and Google X, the search firm's "moonshot factory", hope artificial intelligence can help. Their partnership combines Dow's knowledge of polymers with Google's machine-learning expertise. The aim is to build an Al system that can identify, sort and reclaim complex plastics at industrial scale. Using "molecular vision" the system analyses the composition of plastic, even when dirty or mixed with other materials.

A pilot in Oregon is testing the idea in real-world conditions. Early results suggest that Al can improve sorting efficiency and the quality of recycled output. "This new approach can change the way recycling centers manage plastic, making it more efficient and effective," says Han Zhang, Dow's sustainability chief for packaging.

The project forms part of Google X's "moonshot for circularity", which seeks to use technology to build a more sustainable economy. By creating a database of plastics and applying Al to identify them, the initiative hopes to make recycling more reliable and more profitable.

The bigger test will be scale. Few recycling plants have the capital or incentives to adopt costly new systems. If Dow and Google can prove that Al-driven sorting reduces waste and raises recovery rates, investment may follow. Until then, the piles of crumpled crisp packets and delivery pouches will continue to grow.