As a result, Sortera has become a national leader in recycling technology innovation. They’ve invented an unprecedented new system to separate aluminum grades with more than 95% purity. This breakthrough doesn’t just help make aluminum recycling more efficient than ever before – it releases incredible profitability potential for the company. Currently operating at a single facility in Indiana, Sortera’s innovative process is set to transform America’s scrap aluminum landscape.
The Indiana plant, which began production in August, operates around the clock. It remelts 30 million pounds of aluminum a month. The facility has already reached cash flow positivity, proving the promise of Sortera’s business model. The company’s CEO, Michael Siemer, emphasizes the importance of their sorting technology, which can classify each chip in a fraction of a second.
Every auto OEM on the face of the planet has made two trips to Indiana at a minimum, Siemer boasted. He pointed out that Sortera’s innovative processes have attracted the attention of leading automotive companies.
This hand sort process, with Sortera’s system sorting aluminum at an incredible ten milliseconds or less. This quick processing capability doesn’t just give the company an edge, but it enables them to access a largely overlooked asset of the recycling industry. Aluminum is one of the most recycled materials on the planet. Here in the United States, only one-third of the aluminum we consume gets recycled. In fact, as Siemer points out, much of Sortera’s scrap aluminum comes from shredded cars, an industry that’s truly overdue for an upgrade.
Furthermore, Sortera is expanding its operations. The company is in the midst of constructing a second factory in Smyrna, Tennessee, in the vicinity of Nashville. It will begin service in April or May of this year. To pay for this rapid growth, Sortera just closed a $20 million equity round and $25 million in debt. VXI Capital, which led this round of funding, was joined by accounts advised by T. Rowe Price. The round was led by Join Capital, with participation from Overlay Capital and Yamaha Motor Ventures.
Siemer illustrated that the margin just increases exponentially beyond 90%. A 92% accuracy results in a narrow margin, 95% results in a pretty big margin, and if you get up to 98% accuracy you actually get a really big margin. Sortera has extremely high accuracy rates. That’s why this capability makes the machine the most efficient investment to sort the 18 billion tons of aluminum created every year in the U.S., maximizing profit on every pound.
Sortera is continuing to improve its technology. Simultaneously, the company is working on developing new techniques to recycle base metals such as copper and titanium. This expansion is not only a testament to its commitment to higher resource recovery, but to tackling the costly challenge of unrecoverable metals.
“People have been wanting to go after this unsorted aluminum, and nobody’s been able to unlock it,” Siemer remarked, reinforcing Sortera’s position as a leader in recycling innovation.