Competitor FAQs

What sets Greyparrot apart from the competition?

At the moment, most of our competitors come from the robotics (or “capital equipment”) industry. By contrast, our focus and expertise lies in data, analytics, AI and software.

Our system is deployed at various stages in the sorting process, with a much broader range of applications than most. The majority of systems only focus on the sorting (QC) stage.

Thanks to our open API, we’re also hardware agnostic when it comes to integration. That makes it easier for our customers to fit our system into their existing infrastructure without hefty capital investment.

Add to that our constantly-expanding material taxonomy and our ability to recognise products and brands, and you get the most flexible, accurate waste analytics system available.

What are the key differences between Greyparrot and optical sorters?

Every technology has strengths and weaknesses. Most optical sorters use NIR imagery, which is very good at distinguishing between different types of polymers – that’s why we’re working to build NIR sensors into our monitoring units!

NIR struggles when it comes to object usage, colour, SKUs and edge cases (like PET bottles with LDPE sleeves, or black plastic).

That’s where Greyparrot excels. Because we use AI to process RGB imagery, we can use shape, colour, size, labels and more to distinguish usage, food grade status, and brands – all without modified packaging, and all at scale. 

Are you competing with optical sorters?

Not entirely! Optical sorters have different goals. While they exist to aid object sorting, our product’s main purpose is to provide analytics and data for as many applications as possible. While we can inform sorting, we can also impact the entire waste value chain.

Because our customers can use that data to enhance sorting processes, we see ourselves as complementary to optical sorters – not competitive. That’s why we ensure that our product integrates with others.