Glacier

I'm excited to share that I've been named as one of Inc. Magazine's 2025 #FemaleFounders500! Six years ago, creating Glacier's first business plan with Areeb at a coffee shop in San Francisco, I was feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about our future. But, I was also grappling with the immense uncertainty of the early-stage founder journey. I took the plunge because of one key insight: the regret of not trying would weigh far more heavily on me than any failure. What began as a back-of-napkin vision to transform recycling through AI and robotics has evolved into something that still takes my breath away. Today, Glacier isn't just changing recycling — it's elevating recyclers as essential pillars of American manufacturing. This recognition isn't just my story—it belongs to many others: ?? Our hardworking teammates, who turn 5PM ideas into working reality by sunrise ?? Our pioneering customers, who bet on our vision when we were still proving what was possible ?? Our steadfast partners, who amplify our voice when we need it most During the hardest stretches of building Glacier, what keeps me going isn't just optimism, but evidence — seeing our technology recover millions of pounds of materials that would have been landfilled forever. Today, as I look at the other founders on this list, I'm reminded that the most powerful innovations come from those willing to tackle the hard problems others avoid. Learn about all these incredible women changing our future: https://lnkd.in/gMgbzWsu

AI is coming for waste—and that’s a good thing! At SXSW 2025, I’ll be breaking down how AI and robotics are improving recycling and circular manufacturing. I’ll be on stage with Alex Hawkinson (BrightAI), Theo Hooker (Cambium), and Jay Kapoor (VSC) next Wednesday to cover: ?? How Glacier works with materials recovery facilities (MRFs) to make waste processing more efficient, scalable, and sustainable. ?? The role of strategic investors. More than ever before, innovative companies like Amazon are driving large-scale adoption of robotics to improve efficiency and sustainability. ?? Upskilling the workforce. Automation isn’t eliminating jobs—it’s creating safer, higher-skilled roles in waste and recycling. If you’ll be in Austin next week, register here: https://lnkd.in/eRekt6Xe See you all soon!

?? The news is out ?? I’m in the 6th cohort of Emerson Collective's Dial Fellowship! And it was a surprisingly personal journey to get here. I was raised in the school of "let your work speak for itself." And that's what Glacier has been focused on every day - tracing and recovering as many recyclables as we can, to help our recycler and brand partners succeed. But along the way, we seem to have built something much bigger than ourselves. To the world, Glacier also represents AI for good, the fight against climate change, the tenacity of underrepresented founders - and literal trash-sorting robots, for crying out loud! When you have a story this juicy, you have an obligation to tell it for a greater cause. My work with the Dial Fellowship is focused on supercharging Glacier's platform to change society's view of recycling: Recycling is ?NOT? just "a better way to get rid of trash." It's actually the next big frontier for manufacturing innovation. ?? Want to learn more? Link below to watch my presentation at the Dial Fellow Summit and learn more about the exceptional work of this year’s cohort. Thank you to the Dial Fellowship for this incredible platform and the opportunity to further our impact! https://lnkd.in/gQmMxtNb #DialFellowship #Sustainability #CircularEconomy #Manufacturing

Our team at Glacier made history this weekend, installing TWO AI-powered robots in ONE weekend. As of this morning, our two newest deployments are already hard at work rescuing recyclables from landfill. For anyone who hasn't built an industrial robot before, let me expand on why this is so friggin cool: * Before Glacier, robot installs routinely took a week or more. With our novel design, we used to take pride in being able to build ONE robot in a weekend, something no other player in the space could do. Two in a single weekend is truly unheard of, until today! * Recycling facilities really don't like incurring downtime for new equipment, so the fact that we can install these between when they leave work on Friday and when they show up on Monday is already like magic for these folks. Imagine taking a weekend trip and coming home on Sunday night to find...a fully functioning robot hard at work sorting your trash! (it's one of the nice robots, I promise) * Magical as it seems to our customers, there was no magic needed on our side. You're looking at our second-generation machine, which is significantly easier to build, install, and maintain. Our team has also become incredibly talented with these builds, creating better processes and tools to speed up the installs. This is a huge milestone on our path to fixing recycling and we hope to continue to impress customers with our magic. I'm so incredibly grateful to my Glacier teammates who did the unseen work of installing these two machines in record time, as well as all of our engineers who continue to design incredible updates for our equipment, and of course to Rebecca Hu for continuing to build such great partnerships with our customers. PS this is just a sneak peek - we'll be doing it again in about a month!

The future of recycling is happening now.??? As the recycling industry faces complex challenges, cutting-edge technologies are driving transformation. AI and robotics are no longer ideas for the future—they're here and changing how we approach material recovery. Glacier is proud to be at the forefront of this revolution, helping optimize processes and reduce waste. Today, our founder and CEO,?Rebecca Hu, will join the panel discussion on "Emerging Technology and Approaches" at the MRF Ops Forum, where she’ll explore?innovations shaping the future of recycling. If you're attending, join us from 1:30-2:30 pm to stay ahead of the curve and be part of the conversation! #RecyclingInnovation #AIinRecycling #Sustainability

Did you miss us at the Plastics Recycling Conference last month? Fret not! Resource Recycling, Inc. published a great summary of takeaways from the plenary session on AI in plastics recycling, featuring insights from Glacier's founder, Rebecca Hu. https://lnkd.in/gbQ8nwrq