This session will take the audience on a journey—from pilot projects to system-wide transformation—exploring how AI and robotics are altering the fabric of waste management, and what it will take to turn innovation into infrastructure.
We will explore:

• How AI and robotics are reshaping the technical core of the industry—optimizing collection, sorting, disassembly, and recovery with speed and precision never before possible.
• How these technologies are redefining the governance and economic models of waste—through digital product passports, smart contracts, and decentralized recovery platforms.
• And, crucially, how they are impacting people—from transforming jobs and skills to unlocking access in regions historically left behind.

By bringing together technology leaders, researchers, policy shapers, and industry practitioners, this session will provide a 360-degree view of how intelligent systems are being built—not just to manage waste, but to design it out of the system entirely.

Session Themes

The Rise of the Intelligent Recovery System
Insights on innovative technologies such as collaborative robotics for disassembling complex electronics, AI powered enhanced material recovery, digital product passports and tracking flows of materials.
Green AI and the Ethics of Automation
How to balance performance with sustainability: the emergence of "Green AI"
Workforce shifts: from manual sorters to robot supervisors—what skills are needed and who is left out?
Data as Infrastructure
How data, not just hardware, is becoming the backbone of circular systems
From traceability to trade: how digital product passports are reshaping value chains
Building Governance for an Automated Future
What policies are needed to govern AI in waste?
How can we ensure equity, inclusion, and environmental justice as automation scales?