If we can improve the economics of recycling, we can accelerate real, scalable climate impact. So... that's what we're doing. 🦾 We’re honored to share a feature from TIME Studios "Solutionaries" series that captures a bit more of the "why" behind what we're building — and the incredible people behind it (shoutout to our fearless leaders Rebecca Hu-Thrams and Areeb Malik). Watch now: https://lnkd.in/gqDyvuCg Our mission continues to be to help recycling work BETTER: for operators, for brands, and for the planet. That means building robots that perform under real MRF conditions. That means unlocking item-level data to make smarter decisions in real time. And that means supporting the people who power this critical infrastructure every day. We’re proud of what our team — and our partners across the recycling ecosystem — have accomplished so far. But we’re even more excited about what’s next. Thank you TIME, Project Management Institute, Good is the New Cool, our teammates, and our early supporters for helping us tell this story. Onward. 🌎♻️ #endwaste #circularmanufacturing #ai #robotics #recycling #climate #solutionaries #mrftech #glacier
Glacier
Climate Technology Product Manufacturing
San Francisco, CA 15,665 followers
Technology to end waste
About us
Glacier's mission is to end waste. Sound ambitious? We agree. But the UN estimates that we only have until 2030 to change our consumption patterns before we do irreversible damage to the environment, so we’re of the opinion that now is the time for big bets. We’re starting in the world of recycling, which has a huge opportunity for impact. Americans send 1.4 million tons of waste to recycling facilities every week (that’s about 4 Empire State Buildings, or 1.5 Golden Gate Bridges). We’re also really bad at it: 25% of what we put in our recycling bins isn’t even recyclable. These recycling facilities make a living by sorting our jumbled-up waste and they need to do it cheaply and accurately. Otherwise they go out of business and our recycling goes straight to the landfill. Even so, recycling facilities today use processes that are highly manual, expensive, and error prone. We plan to revolutionize the way these facilities use technology, to make them more streamlined, accurate, and profitable - which means more recyclables avoid the landfill, and more of our natural resources are protected. Our growing team draws from the brightest and most passionate professionals across robotics, manufacturing, software, AI, and market strategy. We’re united by our deep-rooted passion to make a big environmental impact, and we’re looking for other mission-driven, creative thinkers to help us right the ship on this truly global issue.
- Website
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http://endwaste.io
External link for Glacier
- Industry
- Climate Technology Product Manufacturing
- Company size
- 11-50 employees
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, CA
- Type
- Privately Held
Locations
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Primary
Get directions
San Francisco, CA 94103, US
Employees at Glacier
Updates
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Glacier reposted this
🎥 I’m thrilled to share that Glacier was featured in a new mini-documentary from TIME Studios - in collaboration with Project Management Institute and Good is the New Cool. I'm lucky to get to talk about Glacier all the time. What I especially love about this project is that it looks beyond the company - to the story that led me to this point. 🌎 Watch it here: https://lnkd.in/g6GxaMuJ That story starts long before Glacier. When I was growing up, nothing in our house went to waste. 👕 Old t-shirts became cleaning rags. 🍪 Empty cookie tins became sewing boxes. 🥫 Cans got dutifully rinsed, crushed, and taken to the beverage redemption center on weekends. I was taught to do those things out of economic necessity - not because anyone called it “sustainability.” But looking back, I realize it was both. That’s the same truth that drives Glacier. When Areeb and I started the company, it wasn’t because we loved AI and robots (though we do). It was because we saw a chance to improve a system where economics and the environment should be on the same side. Recycling isn’t just a sustainability issue; it’s an economic one. If the economics don’t work, the system doesn’t work. That’s why we’re building AI-powered robots and data tools that help recycling facilities run more efficiently and profitably - reducing waste, improving working conditions, and keeping valuable materials in circulation. The lesson I’ve carried from my childhood to now is simple: Waste is just misplaced value. At Glacier, we’re building the tools to find it - and use it - over and over again. ♻️
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Glacier reposted this
Earlier this month, we launched our AI sorting robot at Penn Waste, with Cox Enterprises as a partner and funder to help make the vision a reality. Cox has bold zero-waste goals; Penn Waste has world-class operators. Add Glacier's AI + robotics, and you get a living example of what happens when industries team up around a shared outcome. This is the pattern I’m most excited about: when MRFs, brands, and innovators collaborate, the system gets better. We’ve seen it already, from Mt. Diablo Resource Recovery x Colgate-Palmolive using our AI to trace toothpaste tubes in the recycling stream, to Penn Waste x Cox accelerating recovery on the front lines. At Glacier, our vision is to help recycling become even better - to make it the next frontier of advanced manufacturing. Item-level data. Provable ROI. Safer work environments. Less waste. If your team wants to co-build what comes next, my door is open! 🔧🤝♻️
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AI for waste streams isn’t just a big dream anymore — it’s national infrastructure. This week, Glacier was featured in TIME’s Best Inventions of 2025, spotlighting how AI is helping to fix one of the most broken parts of our economy: recycling. It’s an optimist’s bet — that we can rebuild the circular economy at scale — but it’s also a pragmatic one. Our robots and AI software are now running in facilities that process recycling for 1 in 10 Americans, delivering measurable ROI for operators and verified data for brands (most MRFs see payback in less than 12 months). Recognition like this is exciting, but what matters most is proof on the line: higher purity rates, more recovered material, and faster payback periods. We’re proud to be building the infrastructure for a cleaner, more circular future — one that’s already paying dividends. Read the Packaging World (PMMI Media Group) story by Matt Reynolds: https://lnkd.in/gwhMXA2M #Recycling #CircularEconomy #AI #Sustainability #TIMEBestInventions #Glacier
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Glacier reposted this
I got to see Glacier's AI recycling robots in action at a waste facility in Pennsylvania last week alongside co-founder Rebecca Hu-Thrams. Really fun touring a MRF for the 1st time after years of reporting on recycling. 🎥 More videos like these to come. Follow my work on TikTok and Instagram @ The Sustainable Source 🗞️ Read my profile of Glacier for TIME Best Inventions 2025 here: https://lnkd.in/emCxd5ZP
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Glacier reposted this
When we installed Glacier's first robot, we didn’t have a customer hotline. We had a Sharpie and scrawled my cofounder Areeb's phone number on the machine (photo for evidence). Today, that robot was named one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2025. It's a little dizzying to contemplate how far "Glacier Tech Support" has come. That first install was me and Areeb, working 20 hours straight through a weekend to prove we could make recycling a little better. Today, our recycling technology supports nearly 1 in 10 Americans. In the time it took you to read this post, our fleet has already analyzed 37,000 recyclables and sorted nearly 1,000 items. I’m so proud of our team and partners, who have turned our sweat and stubborn optimism into something that’s making a meaningful dent. And I’m also reminded: we’re still just getting started. Onward! 🚀♻️
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🎉 We are THRILLED to be named one of TIME's Best Inventions 2025! 🎉 When we finished installing our very first recycling robot, our founders Rebecca Hu-Thrams and Areeb Malik worked 20 hours straight through the weekend to get it running. When it finally came online, they grabbed a Sharpie and wrote Areeb’s cell phone number on the side — right above it, they scrawled: “Glacier Tech Support.” Today, that same line of robots — now with a full engineering, operations, and support team behind them — is achieving this amazing recognition from TIME. It’s surreal to see something we once built by hand in a Craigslist-rented attic now helping process the waste of nearly 1 in 10 American households, identifying over 70 categories of materials at industrial scale. We’re proud of how far we’ve come and deeply aware of how far we still have to go to make recycling work the way we know it can. Here’s to everyone who’s been part of this journey: MRF operators, brand partners, engineers, and believers who helped make this invention real. ♻️ #TIMEBestInventions #CircularEconomy #AI #Recycling #Robotics #EndWaste #ClimateTech
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Glacier reposted this
Glacier is expanding (again)! Our AI-powered recycling robot is now live in York, Pennsylvania. ♻️ In partnership with Waste Connections and Cox Enterprises, our latest installation is at one of the largest single-stream MRFs in the Northeastern US, Penn Waste. I’m thrilled to be on-site today for the ribbon-cutting ceremony - and not just because it’s my first time handling giant scissors. ✂️🎀 By implementing Glacier’s technology, Penn Waste joins dozens of other MRFs that use Glacier's fiber QC automation to remove cardboard, plastic film, and plastic bottles - simultaneously improving recovery rates for OCC and PET while boosting purity rates for their paper stream.📄 A heartfelt thank you to the Penn Waste team for hosting us at your state-of-the-art facility, and the Cox team for your commitment to improving sustainable infrastructure in the communities where you live, work, and play. Learn more from Gage Edwards in Waste360: https://lnkd.in/gY-gmpNu
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Glacier reposted this
Our 🤖 family continues to grow, and this one’s kinda a big deal! Our newest deployment with Waste Connections and Cox Enterprises brings Glacier’s AI sorting robots to the Penn Waste MRF in York County, Pennsylvania, one of the largest single-stream MRFs in the Northeast. It’s so cool to see how far our tech has come. Our AI can now identify and sort over 70 material types in real-time, and our systems are helping dozens of MRFs across the country boost recovery, purity, and efficiency while generating verified data that powers circularity. In 2025 so far, Glacier has installed the same number of units as the last three years combined, doubling its U.S. presence and now processing recycling streams for 1 in 10 Americans. More info about this launch by Gage Edwards in Waste 360: https://lnkd.in/gCgnix9v
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Glacier is expanding to Pennsylvania! We’re proud to announce our latest deployment with Waste Connections and Cox Enterprises at the Penn Waste Material Recovery Facility in York County, Pennsylvania (one of the largest single-stream MRFs in the Northeast!). Our robot will play an essential role in boosting the recovery of materials such as cardboard and PET on Penn Waste’s fiber line to: 🗑️ Increase landfill diversion 📃 Improve the quality of recovered paper ♻️ Deliver cleaner feedstock for mills and greater value from recycled commodities 2025 has been a year of growth for Glacier. In this year alone, we’ve installed the same number of units as the last three years combined (and we've still got a few months to go 👀). Now, 1 in 10 Americans' recycling is being processed by our robots. Read more from Gage Edwards in Waste 360: https://lnkd.in/gBR-Y4rB