AI Helps Cleaning Up of Marine Pollution
Romanian start-up Recycllux is using AI to help communities detect, collect and recycle marine plastic waste.
With support from BlueInvest, the company is now expanding its innovative cleanup model across the Mediterranean.
Recycllux was founded in 2021 by Sorina Uleia as a response to her personal frustration at plastic pollution affecting the sea waters of her childhood. With over two decades of experience in technology, innovation, and business development, she brought together a diverse team with expertise in AI, climate science, and ocean solutions to develop what is now a scalable framework for marine plastic recovery, integrating technological advancements and empowering local communities.
Using AI to analyze imagery from the EU’s Copernicus satellite network, the platform detects areas with high concentrations of plastic waste in coastal waters. The information is then shared with local fishers and NGOs who are able to collect, sort and recycle the waste.
Local communities are directly compensated for their efforts, and every step of the process - from detection to collection and waste handover - is recorded on a blockchain-secured platform, ensuring complete transparency and traceability.
In addition, corporate partners receive clear, verifiable impact reports in line with EU sustainability frameworks that show how they are meeting their environmental obligations while directly supporting the coastal communities engaged in the cleanups.
After receiving BlueInvest support, Recycllux was able to turn the prototype into a fully operational, cloud-based platform. Real-world interventions in the Black Sea, made possible thanks to the funding, have helped to prove that the model works and the company is now expanding into the Mediterranean, establishing a new subsidiary in Malta and starting in pilot projects in France and Tunisia.