If the cost of labour is what makes local recycling impossible, wouldn't automation with AI and robots (or maybe something like plastic-eating bacteria?) be the

If the cost of labour is what makes local recycling impossible, wouldn't automation with AI and robots (or maybe something like plastic-eating bacteria?) be the only possible solution? Of course bypassing the problem by reducing plastic waste is always preferred and so much more elegant a solution, but provided that would need to be done across all the globe, including so many different cultures and governments, and with such poor inherent economic incentives (plastic is still too cheap), I'm not really confident that'd be possible within a reasonable time-frame, or at all. I feel like a breakthrough in recycling technology by a small team and some investors would be much easier to achieve than global alignment in law making and enforcement. Is there anyone achieving significant progress in that area?