UoH’s laser method to sort out plastic

Hyderabad: The University of Hyderabad (

UoH

) researchers have developed a low cost method for sorting plastic using laser based technique known as laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

Every year, several million tons of plastic waste generated worldwide is leading to a landfill problem and their incineration polluting the environment. The increasing domestic and industrial plastic waste raises more concerns over recycling which offers an efficient solution to minimize waste output and reduces the usage of natural resources.

The research team from UoH employed LIBS to generate data from different types of plastics. All samples were collected from a recycling plant to simulate the conditions of a real-time application. The generated data was combined with machine learning 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. Their approach displayed potential in realizing a low-cost sorting system for plastic waste recycling.

Research work “low-cost sorting of plastic waste” authored by Rajendhar Junjuri and G Manoj Kumar is published in Optics and Photonics News (OPN) review 2020 published by Optical Society of America. Each year, December issue of OPN highlights exciting optics research to emerge in the preceding 12 months.

This year, 30 works were selected out of 115 summaries submitted by various research teams across the globe.