Amazon-Backed Glacier's $16M Funding Boosts AI Robots Capable Of Sorting 30+ Material Types, Transforming Recycling Industry

Glacier, the San Francisco-based AI robotics startup, announced a $16 million Series A funding round on Tuesday to expand deployment of its waste-sorting robots across U.S. recycling facilities.

The round was led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund, with participation from the Amazon Climate Pledge Fund and other investors. According to GeekWire, Amazon AMZN, which is already working with Glacier to test plant-based plastic sorting at its Seattle sustainability lab, has included the startup in its broader strategy to reduce single-use fossil fuel plastics across Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods packaging lines.

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The fresh capital brings Glacier's total funding to $29 million. With robots currently active in five states and vision technology operating in four others, the company plans to scale rapidly, GeekWire reports.

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AI Vision Targets Plastics, Bottles, And Cans Missed By Humans

Recology, a major waste management company with operations across the West Coast, is using Glacier's technology to modernize recycling at its South Seattle material recovery facility, according to GeekWire.

Glacier's robots are designed to operate in material recovery facilities, where trucks deliver around 300 tons of mixed recyclables daily, GeekWire says. Equipped with AI vision trained on billions of images, the robots identify and grab items like shampoo bottles, milk jugs, and soda cans using suction-powered arms.

According to GeekWire, there are four Glacier robots already at Recology's South Seattle site. Two straddle conveyor belts, each scanning for a specific type of high-density polyethylene plastic. A third grabs stray bottles missed upstream, and a fourth pulls cans before they reach the end of the line.

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“AI is more accurate in detecting the material it’s going after,” Justin Johnson, operations manager at Recology told Seattle's KOMO-TV. He highlighted that these robots can sort through 45 items a minute, efficiently picking up materials and depositing them into the appropriate recycling bins.

According to GeekWire, Glacier co-founder Areeb Malik, a former Facebook engineer, said that the machines can recover 80%–90% of target materials, roughly matching the accuracy of human sorters.

Glacier's robots currently operate in Washington state, California, Michigan, Arizona, and Illinois. GeekWire says that only the vision tech has been deployed to pilot testing in states like Texas and New Jersey. The startup currently employs 35 people and expects to grow alongside state-level recycling reforms.

Amazon's support goes beyond capital. At its Seattle sustainability lab, the company is testing Glacier's robots for use with bio-based plastics, such as biopolyesters.

"Glacier and Recology are proving out the full potential of this technology," Glacier co-founder Rebecca Hu-Thrams told GeekWire during a tour of the Seattle site. "We live in an incredible era where the tools to supercharge recycling already exist."

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Legislation Adds Momentum As Glacier Expands

According to GeekWire, Washington state lawmakers recently passed Senate Bill 5284, which would require product brands to help pay for recycling while standardizing materials accepted curbside. The legislation aims to boost household recycling from 83% to over 95% and increase annual recycled material per household from 325 pounds to 525 pounds.

Glacier's modular, fast-install robots offer a scalable solution to meet those goals. With machines capturing high-value plastics in real time and reducing strain on human labor, the company may play a central role in reshaping American recycling infrastructure.

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