Design of an embedded based control system for efficient sorting of waste plastics using Near Infrared Spectroscopy

In this paper we present an embedded system solution to automate the sorting of different types of plastic by using the concepts of Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS). Plastics are everyday used non-biodegradable materials when not disposed properly has adverse effects on the environment. For recycling of plastics different types of plastics (polymers) have to be identified and segregated. For economic reasons plastics must be identified and sorted instantaneously. The NIRS technique has been used for the instantaneous identification of plastics. Measurements made by NIRS are quite accurate and fast. To realize the above, a low cost Raspberry Pi based Control System, for efficient sorting of waste plastics has been developed. The necessary software required to interface the spectrometer with the Raspberry Pi as well as to process the NIRS data to obtain information on the polymer category have been written on the general-purpose, high-level programming language Python.