Black Plastic Detection System

Despite efforts by residents to recycle all plastics appropriately, the current technology is inadequate to recycle black plastics. Facilities in Toronto sort plastic using optical waste sorting techniques. This involves shining a light to illuminate the plastic and uses near infrared spectroscopy to detect and sort it based on its properties. Although this works on all plastics efficiently, it fails repeatedly with plastic that is black. The primary reason for this is the inability of the near-infrared camera to detect the plastic, as the electromagnetic waves are absorbed by it. As a result, approximately 90% of all recyclable plastic end up unrecycled, found in lakes, parks and landfills across the country.

The objective of this project was to develop a device that can not only differentiate and sort plastics but detect plastics that are undetectable with the current technology. The main goal of the proposed project was to design and develop an affordable combination of mechanical and software parts that work together to sense black plastic and separate it. Using webcam cameras that are modified individually, our project aimed to use computational logic to classify a black plastic from other plastics.