• The Bègles sorting center is equipped with a new robotic arm to sort furniture waste.

  • It will make it possible to recover more of this waste.

  • This type of robot is intended to be developed to accelerate recycled volumes.

It will have cost the modest sum of 2.3 million euros.

Developed and patented by the company Veolia (specialized in the management of water, material and energy resources), Rob'Inn is a new generation device with which the Bègles sorting center has just been equipped.

Its principle is simple: individuals deposit their used furniture in the department's recycling centers, so that they are collected and then sorted by Rob'Inn, a robotic arm equipped with a gripper.

The sorting agents are therefore no longer obliged to be in direct contact with the waste: all they have to do is press a touch screen for the robot to pick it up, specifying its nature (wood, metal, plastic, etc.).

He then places them in the appropriate pipe, so that they can be transported to the industrial sectors which allow them to be recycled (metallurgy, plastics, etc.). Scrap metal, plastic and wood can thus be recycled.

However, this is not the case for small pieces of plastic from furniture and foamy materials that end up as fuel in cement works.

From 16,000 to 24,000 tonnes processed

For now, the robot is not able to automatically detect the nature of the waste.

“But it will come one day, predicts Kiram Mahmoud, the center's operations manager.

Our first objective is for him to define their volume himself”.


“It's a tool that allows us to have better industrial capacities, since we increase our production scope.

Until now, it was 16,000 tonnes per year on this site, explains Jean-Christophe Poultier, sector director within the center.

This would allow us to pass up to 24,000 tonnes of furniture waste”.

A first model was installed in Chermignac (Charente-Maritime) at the end of 2017, and in


Villeneuve-Loubet (Alpes-Maritimes) last May.

One thing is certain: the device aims to expand, according to Kiram Mahmoud.

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  • Bordeaux

  • Aquitaine

  • Waste

  • Robot

  • Robotics

  • Veolia