One of the challenges involved in recycling plastic is determining the specific type of plastic a given item is actually made of. To keep up with demand, large scale recycling centers rely on various automated systems to separate different types of plastic from a stream of incoming material. But in less technologically advanced parts of the world, workers can find themselves having to manually identify plastic objects; a time consuming and error-prone process.
To try and improve on the situation, [Jerry de Vos], [Armin Straller], and [Jure Vidmar] have been working on a handheld open hardware device that they refer to simply enough as the Plastic Scanner. The hope is that their pocket-sized unit could be used in the field to positively identify various types of plastic by measuring its reflectivity to infrared light. The device promises to be very easy to operate, as users simply need to bring the device close to a piece of plastic, push the button, and wait for the information to pop up on the OLED display.
Or at least, that’s the idea. While the team eventually hopes to release a kit to build your own handheld Plastic Scanner, it seems that the hardware isn’t quite ready for production. The most recent work appears to have been put in, not unexpectedly, the development board that lets the team refine their process. The development unit combines an array of IR LEDs with wavelengths ranging from 850 to 1650 nanometers, a InGaAs photodiode connected to an ADS1256 24-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and an Arduino Uno. In comparison, the final hardware uses a Raspberry Pi Zero and a smaller “breakout board” that contains ..
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