Kingston University has been selected to lead the UK's first dedicated waste and recycling robotics adoption hub, part of a £40 million (approximately $53 million) government scheme. The National Waste and Recycling Robotics Adoption Hub (NORAH), funded by Innovate UK and based in the Southeast of England, is one of eight Robotic Adoption Hubs being rolled out across the UK to help businesses and public services adopt automation.
Key takeaways
- Led by Professor Vasilis Argyriou, a computer vision and AI expert at Kingston University, the £3.6 million NORAH project (£1.5 million for Kingston University) will help UK waste and recycling sites test and adopt robots to recover more materials, reduce landfill and create skilled jobs.
- Fewer than five per cent of UK waste facilities have adopted automation, largely because robotic systems struggle to operate reliably on contaminated, heterogeneous and deformable materials, leaving operators unable to predict performance or quantify ROI.
- The hub will validate technologies on live waste streams using advanced sensing, multi-arm robotic sorting cells and digital simulation, generating measured data on classification accuracy, throughput, contamination handling and material recovery.
- Initial focus areas include textiles, mixed recyclables and soft-material waste, supported by site-specific economic modelling, independent benchmarking, integration support in Materials Recovery Facilities and workforce training.
The consortium includes the University of Kent, the West London Waste Authority, robotic developers, waste operators, local authorities and national bodies. Professor Argyriou said the plan is to support more than 150 organisations and deliver operational deployments by 2030, moving proven robotics from the lab into live operations.
Source: Robotics & Automation News · Published 2026-10-09T20:05:56 · “Kingston University chosen to lead UK’s first waste and recycling robotics hub”