A unique vision sorting solution in the war on waste

Australia’s leading provider of industrial automation and control services began in a backyard shed in the early ‘ 90s. Andrew Downs, the mastermind behind SAGE Automation was driven by a vision and sheer passion. When surrounded by a few talented, engineering-minded individuals, a dream came to life.

Fast-forward to 2018 – many awards, regional and international office openings, an expanded service offering and many satisfied customers later, SAGE Automation says it has fast- become the go-to for smart automation and prides itself on delivering scalable, agile and secure solutions.

THE PROBLEM… THE SOLUTION

Container Deposit Systems Australia (CDSA) approached SAGE Automation with an unusual automation challenge. Recent environmental legislation has seen many recycling plants facing the same problem – reduced efficiencies and increased costs thanks to the purchase of an expensive sorting machine from Europe, coupled with expensive, unreliable labour.

With the machine using barcodes to sort, waste was of major concern as damaged products could not be read. NSW Environmental Protection Authority’s new Return and Earn* scheme has come under fire for accepting only ‘perfect rubbish’. The Return and Earn website says ‘containers should be empty, uncrushed, unbroken and have the original label attached’. This is so that each container’s barcode can be scanned.

All of these factors had put a strain on their customer satisfaction.

At the core of its business, CDSA looks to optimise recycling facilities through decades of experience.

CDSA harnesses technology to improve productivity within recycling depot facilities where the manual handling of materials is still prominent.

“CDSA works with current and prospective operators of recycling facilities seeking to grow businesses and sets best practice in the industry. We position recycling facilities to realise significant productivity gains, improved customer relationships and highly secure and auditable product management,” says Brett Duncanson, Executive Chairman of CDSA.

“Priding ourselves on customer satisfaction, the issues that we were facing was hindering our business and we were turning customers away rather than make them want to take on the task of recycling and collecting money.” Understanding the issues that CDSA was facing, SAGE Automation worked closely with

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