University of Hyderabad researchers develop low-cost method to sort plastic waste

The research team from the UoH employed the LIBS to generate the data from different types of plastics. All the samples were collected from a recycling plant to simulate the conditions of a real-time application. 

A team of researchers at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) have developed a low-cost method for sorting plastic waste using the laser based technique known as Laser-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).

Every year, the millions of tons of plastic waste generated worldwide are leading to landfill problem and their incineration polluting the environment. The ever-increasing domestic and industrial plastic waste raises more concerns over their recycling which offers an efficient solution to minimize waste output and reduced the usage of natural resources. However, sorting is a crucial step in the recycling process as it affects the quality and cost of the final products.

The research team from the UoH employed the LIBS to generate the data from different types of plastics. All the samples were collected from a recycling plant to simulate the conditions of a real-time application. 
The generated data were combined with Machine Learning (ML) to identify the type of the unknown plastic. This system demonstrated successful identification of samples from plastic waste with an average accuracy of around 97 per cent. This approach has great potential in realizing a low-cost sorting system for plastic waste recycling. 

The research work ‘low-cost sorting of plastic waste’ authored by Rajendhar Junjuri and G Manoj Kumar is published in optics and photonics news (OPN) year review 2020 published by Optical Society of America (OSA). Each year, the December issue of OPN highlights the most exciting optics research to emerge in the preceding 12 months. This year 30 intriguing works were selected out of 115 summaries submitted by various research teams across the globe.    

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