Sortera is turning America’s scrap aluminum problem into cash

Sortera is addressing a major challenge in U.S. aluminum recycling: the difficulty of sorting mixed scrap aluminum by grade. Although aluminum is highly recyclable and energy-efficient compared to producing new metal, only a small fraction of U.S. aluminum is recycled due to the complexity of sorting alloys. Sortera’s solution uses an AI-driven system that analyzes scrap pieces—about the size of large potato chips—using lasers, X-ray fluorescence, and high-speed cameras to identify different aluminum grades within milliseconds. Once identified, precise air jets separate the scrap into correct bins, enabling high-speed, accurate sorting without the need to melt the aluminum first. This innovation unlocks the value of previously unsorted scrap, which was less valuable due to uncertain alloy composition. The company’s sorting accuracy, exceeding 90%, has allowed Sortera to achieve profitability from a single plant in Indiana, processing millions of pounds of scrap monthly. To expand, Sortera recently raised $45 million in combined equity and debt funding to build a second