♻️ NovaRecycle

The Operating System for Resource Recovery. Digital management of Material Recovery Facilities (MRF), urban mining, and automated sorting centers.

NovaRecycle is the Vertical Sector responsible for the End-of-Life (and Re-Birth) phase of the circular economy. While NovaLogistics handles the movement of waste, NovaRecycle handles the processing. It runs the software inside sorting centers, scrap yards, and chemical recycling plants.

It transforms mixed, low-value waste streams into high-value "Secondary Raw Materials" (SRM) ready for NovaTrade.

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🎯 Value Proposition

The goal is to turn the city into a mine ("Urban Mining"). NovaRecycle provides the digital infrastructure to:

1. Automate Sorting: Orchestrate robotic arms and air-jets (via NovaInfra) to separate materials based on NovaMind vision data.
2. Verify Recovery: Prove to regulators that 10 tons of plastic were actually recycled, not incinerated (Compliance with EU Waste Shipment Regulation).
3. Material Valuation: Real-time calculation of the "Ore Grade" of incoming waste (e.g., "This truckload of e-waste contains €5,000 of Gold").

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🏗️ Architecture (The Transformation Factory)

NovaRecycle acts as a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) for trash. It tracks mass flow balance (Input = Output + Loss).

graph TD
    User((Facility Manager)) -->|HTTPS| UI[NovaRecycle Dashboard]
    UI -->|REST| API[NovaRecycle API]
    
    subgraph "The Input (Gate)"
        API -->|Weight/Scan| Infra["NovaInfra (Weighbridge)"]
        API -->|Validate Carrier| Logistics[NovaLogistics]
    end

    subgraph "The Sorting Line"
        Infra -->|Camera Stream| Mind[NovaMind]
        Mind -->|Material ID| API
        API -->|Sort Command| Infra[Robotic Sorters]
    end

    subgraph "The Output (Bales)"
        API -->|Mint Material Batch| Mat[NovaMaterial]
        API -->|List for Sale| Trade[NovaTrade]
        API -->|Mass Balance Audit| Balance[NovaBalance]
    end

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Integrated Services

• NovaInfra: Controls the industrial hardware—conveyor belts, weighbridges, NIR (Near-Infrared) scanners, and balers.
• NovaMind: The eyes. Distinguishes between PET (Water bottles) and HDPE (Shampoo bottles) milliseconds before they hit the sorter.
• NovaMaterial: The birth certificate. When recycling finishes, NovaRecycle creates a new Passport for the "Recycled Pellet Batch."
• NovaTrade: The sales channel. Automatically lists produced bales (e.g., "1 Ton Grade A Aluminum") on the wholesale market.

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✨ Key Features

1. Smart Sorting Logic

Configurable routing logic for the facility.

• Dynamic Recipes: Switch the sorting line mode based on market prices from NovaTrade.
  • Scenario: "Price of Clear PET is up. Switch optical sorters to prioritize Clear over Colored."

2. Mass Balance Accounting

The anti-fraud engine.

• Input: 100 Tons of Mixed Trash.
• Output: 60 Tons Metal, 20 Tons Plastic, 20 Tons Residue.
• Audit: If a facility claims to produce 110 Tons of output from 100 Tons of input, NovaBalance flags a "Phantom Inventory" fraud alert.

3. Digital Waste Transfer Notes (dWTN)

Automated compliance.

• Generates the legal manifest required to move hazardous waste (e.g., batteries from NovaTronix).
• Cryptographically signs the handover from Hauler -> Recycler.

4. Urban Mining Yields

Predictive analytics for city planners.

• Integrates with product-urban-miner to report: "We recovered 40kg of Rare Earth Elements this month."

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🚀 Getting Started

We use DevContainers to provide a consistent development environment.

Prerequisites

• Docker Desktop
• VS Code (with Remote Containers extension)

Installation

1. Clone the repo:

   git clone https://github.com/novaeco-tech/novarecycle.git
   cd novarecycle

2. Open in VS Code:
   • Run code .
   • Click "Reopen in Container" when prompted.
3. Start the Sector:

   make dev

   • Dashboard: http://localhost:3000 (Facility Control Panel)
   • API: http://localhost:8000/docs

Configuration (.env)

# Facility Settings
FACILITY_TYPE=MRF # or E_WASTE, CHEMICAL, COMPOST
SORTING_CAPACITY_TPH=50 # Tons Per Hour

# Integrations
NOVAINFRA_URL=http://novainfra-api:8000
NOVAMIND_URL=http://novamind-api:50051

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📂 Repository Structure

This is a Monorepo containing the sector's specific logic.

novarecycle/
├── api/                # Python/FastAPI (The Factory Brain)
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── inbound/    # Weighbridge & dWTN logic
│   │   ├── sorting/    # Algorithm to route materials to bins
│   │   └── outbound/   # Bale generation & NovaTrade listing
├── app/                # React/Next.js Frontend (Operator UI)
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── live-view/  # Real-time conveyor visualization
│   │   └── reports/    # Yield & Mass Balance charts
├── website/            # Documentation (Docusaurus)
└── tests/              # Integration tests

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🧪 Testing

We use Process Simulation for testing.

• Mass Balance: make test-balance
  • Simulates a 24h shift. Asserts that Input Mass == Output Mass + Loss.
• Contamination Test: make test-purity
  • Simulates a "Lithium Battery" entering a "Paper Line." Verifies that the system triggers an emergency stop event via NovaInfra.

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🤝 Contributing

We need contributors with backgrounds in Industrial Automation, Waste Management, and Process Engineering. See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

Maintainers: @novaeco-tech/maintainers-sector-novarecycle