4 Innovations That Promote Plastic Recycling

What makes plastic recycling essential is its abundant existence. It has been noticed that ninety percent of the waste accumulated from garbage dumps are plastic. Also, on a daily basis, plastic is used to manufacture various items for different kinds of industries.

With the help of technology, it has become easier to recycle plastic in a faster and more efficient way. Below are four technology generated innovations to boost plastic recycling:

• A Bot For The Job

AMP Robotics has developed a robot named ‘Clarke’ to help with the waste sorting system. It uses artificial intelligence to sort and recognize food and beverage packages and containers. With the help of a light enabled camera, it can distinguish between a juice, milk or food carton. It pulls out the cartons using its robotic arm and suction cups.

• Cutting Costs

The process of plastic recycling utilizes water to clean and cool the plastic down. Recently, recyclers have come up with a technology that can clean and cool recycled plastic without using water. This advancement will not only save water but will also reduce energy consumption.  This welcome move will benefit the environment and reduce the cost of plastic recycling.

• Laser to Tackle Waste

Sorting plastic waste manually can be expensive and time-consuming. The optical sorting specialist, TOMRA sorting has developed a Laser Object Detection system. This system detects plastics based on their compositions. Once that is done, the plastics are streamed into separate sections using air. LOD claims to use lesser energy and deliver a cost-effective solution.

• Recycling With Convenience

The shrink wrap sleeves on plastic beverage bottles help in identifying the contents in the bottle. However, they can sometimes gum up the process of recycling. If the labels get mixed up with the plastic bottles, the quality of the plastic can be affected. An advanced technique has been discovered which will get rid of the labels without causing any damage to the bottles. This will reduce plastic waste and help in recycling more plastic bottles.

There are many more promising innovations coming up that will make the process of recycling more efficient. It will save natural resources and make used plastic available to be utilized for new goods and items.