Recyclable materials recovery is usually performed manually at Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) settled in the vicinity of dense urban areas. Recent AI and robotics developments allow the automation of several MRF activities. However, this solution is not cost-effective. It’s also not suitable for large waste volumes and not for smaller areas. While portable material recovery units emerge as a response to the latter, they are not without limitations. The EU-funded RECLAIM project will develop a portable robotic MRF (prMRF) tailored to small-scale material recovery by exploiting well-tested technology in robotics, AI and data analytics. The project adopts a modular multi-robot/multi-gripper approach for material recovery and a citizen science approach.