Why Omrin is scaling to a facility-wide AI strategy

At the start of 2025, we wrote about Omrin’s deployment of a single Analyzer unit at its mixed waste sorting facility in Heerenveen.

Less than six months later, Process Engineer Karin Wolters is planning a much bigger deployment — seven new units, spread across key lines throughout the facility.

Here’s how one Analyzer unit led to a facility-wide AI strategy, and how waste intelligence is (literally) shaping Omrin future.

Karin and Omrin team wanted to test the Analyzer system on a flexible plastics line.

Installing and calibrating the unit to Omrin’s specific waste stream was a faster, more collaborative experience than their team expected:

I was surprised that the installation moved so fast … the really big library meant that recognition was not a challenge."

• Karin Wolters, Process Engineer at Omrin

How Omrin uses Analyzer to improve flexible film sorting

Karin soon found that Greyparrot data was accurate enough to optimise a vital sorting process. Wolters and her team now use Greyparrot data to tune their wind-shifter, which separates light flexible material from heavier objects. It’s critical for maintaining product quality, and for meeting the government’s purity requirements.

Instead of waiting days to find out whether their adjustments have improved product quality, they get feedback before it’s too late to make further changes:

Previously, we would have to wait three or four days to find out how our adjustments impacted the material stream. Now, I get feedback in a matter of hours and can adjust parameters again if needed. It’s really increased output for that stream.”

• Karin Wolters, Process Engineer at Omrin

Encouraged by Analyzer’s measurable impact on a key product line, Karin began to see opportunities for data-driven improvement across the entire Omrin facility.

Why Omrin is scaling to a facility-wide AI strategy

Omrin’s management team had already seen a larger-scale AI waste analytics strategy succeed at the neighbouring KSI facility, and were eager to support Karin’s expansion plan. Instead of deploying units one-by-one, they decided to adopt a data-driven approach to operations across their entire facility.

Making the business case for sorting efficiency

Omrin is now preparing to install seven new units on key product and residue lines. The company plans to gather insights that will inform their current processes, and their investment strategy.

Karin told us that she’ll use the Analyzer system to: 

• Monitor the number of drinks cans they capture on their aluminium line:

  “We are looking into the composition of the aluminium stream so that we can make the decision to separate high-quality aluminium from less pure material. Some components of this stream (such as deposit cans) are easily distinguishable; this is a very pure form of aluminium and therefore potentially interesting to separate."

• Track the number of gas bottles in their ferrous metal stream:

  “Gas bottles need to be removed manually, compressed, then reprocessed before we can send them to our customers. We’ll use Analyzer to determine whether it’s less costly to automate that process.”

• Identify areas for improvement in their residue stream:

  “Understanding which valuable materials we aren’t capturing is really important to help us optimise our sorting processes.”

Nurturing in-house AI skills at Omrin

Those new use-cases will generate a massive amount of valuable data — but Karin is a full-time Process Engineer. She told us that hiring an in-house data specialist is an important strategic decision for companies that want to scale AI strategies quickly:

They will be completely dedicated to extracting insights from the Analyzer system, and helping my colleagues in production to implement them.”

• Karin Wolters, Process Engineer at Omrin

AI waste analytics is redefining the skills that drive a successful recovery facility — and it’s set to define entire facilities, too.

A new facility, built on waste intelligence

Karin and her team use data to improve today’s sorting operations, but they’re planning to scale things even further: in the next few years, Omrin plan to launch a new facility, shaped in part by Analyzer insights:

This information is being used to build a business case for a completely new [facility] we’re working on … we’re looking at data on the materials we don’t currently capture, for example, to design a facility that can capture them.”

• Karin Wolters, Process Engineer at Omrin

For Karin, validating new facility designs with data is an extension of Omrin’s central ethos: that waste is a valuable resource, and it’s worth recovering as much of it as possible:

Even my friends notice that I have a twinkle in my eye when I talk about my work. Everybody in this company wants to be the best, and they’re prepared to invest in that effort. That’s Omrin’s way of life, and Greyparrot really helps us achieve it. I think that’s why we work so well together.”

• Karin Wolters, Process Engineer at Omrin

Learn how more global facilities are applying AI waste analytics here.