Novel autonomous recycling system

The UAE Government is actively attempting to lead the efforts of reducing CO2 emissions by encouraging the process of recycling materials and implementing renewable energy sources. Currently, the collection of recyclable material is via different labeled bins which hold the materials. Even though such configuration is a very cost effective, people tend not to follow instructions hence requiring the mixed materials inside the bin to be sorted after collection. Therefore, this paper proposes a system for autonomously identifying, handling, and sorting plastic, aluminum, and glass waste products. The system is intended to operate in an outdoor environment and therefore, solar energy technology is integrated as its primary power source. Many challenges are present in the system particularly in reliably identifying the various materials. Hence, an innovative material identification method were tested and implemented in the system. The method introduces the principle of recording, analyzing and identifying the recyclable materials from the sound effect generated when the object is dropped on a hard surface. The system was tested by throwing 300 samples of plastic, glass, aluminum with different shapes, sizes, and colors in both quiet and noisy environments. Out of 300 samples, only 1 sample was identified incorrectly which gives a success rate of 99.67%. Therefore, this system is an effective solution to reduce the cost and time required by material recovery facilities in the recycling process. In order to encourage the community to recycle, the system is enhanced by a novel idea where money is given in exchange for the recyclable objects based on weight and material through coding and limits based on the UAE Standards. The user has also the option of donating the accumulated sum for a specific charity.