Google has signed an agreement with Commonwealth Sortation LLC, an affiliate of AMP Robotics Corporation, to remove 200,000 metric tons of CO2e by 2030, while also accelerating new pathways for the waste industry to tackle methane, a potent superpollutant.
AMP uses AI-powered sortation technology to recover recyclable commodities and organic material from municipal solid waste. Instead of allowing organic waste to decompose in landfills and release methane, AMP converts it into biochar, a stable material that sequesters carbon and keeps it out of the atmosphere for hundreds of years.
Landfilled municipal solid waste is the third-largest source of human-generated methane emissions in the United States, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. By diverting organic material from landfills and transforming it into biochar before it produces methane, AMP鈥檚 process both reduces near-term warming and locks carbon away for the long term.
This purchase will enable AMP to add biochar production capacity to the largest recycling project in the United States, ultimately unlocking the potential to convert five million tons of organic waste into biochar over the next 20 years.
AMP and Google will also work together to establish frameworks for quantifying the impact that waste diversion paired with biochar carbon removal could have on methane elimination, and help lay the groundwork for scaling these solutions across the municipal waste industry.
鈥淲e鈥檙e excited to catalyze an approach to waste management that takes on the twin challenges of climate change: the near-term warming of methane and the long-term warming of carbon dioxide. AMP鈥檚 technology, through its partnerships with local waste management authorities, offers a scalable way to turn waste organic materials into a real climate solution, all while supporting local communities by reducing waste and mitigating air pollution,鈥� said Randy Spock, Carbon Credits and Removal Lead at Google.
In late 2025, AMP affiliate Commonwealth Sortation LLC signed a 20-year contract with the Southeastern Public Service Authority of Virginia, the regional waste authority that serves eight communities and 1.2 million residents in South Hampton Roads.
Through this project, AMP鈥檚 AI sortation technology will ultimately process 540,000 tons of MSW annually, diverting or repurposing at least 50% of this material from the landfill. In addition to preventing waste buildup at SPSA鈥檚 landfill, each ton diverted reduces or sequesters more than 0.7 tons of CO鈧俥鈥攁mounting to more than 378,000 tons of carbon dioxide avoided or removed annually, equivalent to taking more than 88,000 cars off the road each year.
Beyond extending landfill life and recycling critical resources, the project demonstrates how AI-powered waste processing can transform MSW disposal鈥攁mong the world鈥檚 largest human-caused sources of superpollutant emissions鈥攊nto a scalable climate solution.
鈥淩ecycling and carbon sequestration are a powerful pairing,鈥� said Matanya Horowitz, AMP founder and chief technology officer. 鈥淭he waste industry is built to capture value from materials. With biochar, we can turn organic waste from a major source of emissions into a durable, carbon-storing asset for municipalities and waste operators. Together with Google, we鈥檙e helping transform one of the economy’s most emissions-intensive sectors into a force for climate impact.鈥�