AMP Robotics Lands 20-Year Deal to Transform Waste Sorting Across Coastal Virginia

AMP Robotics has secured a 20-year waste processing partnership with the Southeastern Public Service Authority (SPSA) of Virginia, expanding on a successful two-year pilot in Portsmouth. Managed through its local affiliate, Commonwealth Sortation, the contract covers eight communities and 1.2 million residents.

The pilot used an AMP One line handling 150 tonnes of mixed municipal waste daily. Under the new deal, AMP will scale its model across three regional facilities, combining multiple AMP One sorting lines with an organics recovery system to process 540,000 tonnes of waste annually. The goal: divert 50% of SPSA’s incoming material, significantly raising local recycling performance.

Powered by AI, AMP’s system identifies recyclables and organics in real time, achieving 90%+ sorting accuracy and 80–140 picks per minute using cameras, robotics, and air jets. CEO Tim Stuart notes that AMP’s platform has already recognized over 200 billion items and processed 2.8 million tonnes of recyclables across 400+ global deployments.

Virginia currently recycles about 43% of its waste. SPSA expects this initiative to boost regional recycling rates by 20 percentage points, eliminate the need for dedicated recycling trucks and facilities, and cut annual emissions equivalent to removing 88,000 cars from the road. With high levels of valuable plastics and metals still slipping into the waste stream, AMP aims to reclaim these lost tonnes—offering a new technology-driven model for recycling aligned with local infrastructure realities.