Engineers in Finland have created a robot that can recycle.

The machine can sort through heaps of rubbish, identifying different materials for their usefulness using vision and touch.

So far, the robot can detect construction and demolition materials such as concrete, wood, metal and some plastics.

Jaako Sarela of Zen Robotics told Click that he believes 99% of what we consume is thrown away within six months. But if you are looking forward to having your own personal robot to sort through household rubbish, you may be waiting for quite some time.

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