Plastic Bottles Segregator

By:

Jodenz S. Virata

A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the College of Engineering and

Architecture in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree

Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering

University of Nueva Caceres

2019
 Table of Contents

CHAPTER I…………………………………………………………………………3
CHAPTER II………………………………………………………………………...6
CHAPTER III………………………………………………………………………..15
References………………………………………………………………………..24

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 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

In the Philippines, there are 770 million people generating an

average of 0.3 to 0.7 kilograms of garbage daily and this amount is

expected to increase by 40% at the end of the decade (MACAWILE,

2009). To implement proper waste management, various aspects have to

be considered such as segregation (Vipin Upadhyay, 2012). Segregation

of plastic wastes can be done by bring-schemes or kerbside segregation

of non-biodegradable plastic wastes. (WRAP 2007). Also recycling process

of plastic waste includes separation is a key link in the process (Jin Y.,

2009). Segregation of wastes goes to landfill which makes it to reduce risks

to overall health and lessen exposure to biohazards. (Alvaro Salmador,

Javier Pérez Cid, Ignacio Rodríguez Novelle, 1989).

In modern recycling plants plastic containers are sorted and

collected according to the resin type, whose recognition is usually

performed by means of infrared, ultraviolet, X-ray detectors (Tachwali et

al., 2007), or manually (Kopardekar et al., 1993; Mital et al., 1998). Auto-

mated sorting systems can treat large volumes of plastic efficiently with

minimal human intervention but will require high investments in specific

technologies (Hearn and Ballard, 2005; Taylor, 2006). A novel application

was developed to identify plastic bottles using a computer vision system

(Wahab et al., 2006). It has been estimated that PET bottle recycling gives
a net benefit in greenhouse gas emissions of 1.5 tons of CO2-e per tons of

recycled PET (Department of Environment and Conservation (NSW) 2005).

The latter point is particularly enhanced by technologies for turning

recovered plastic into food grade polymer by removing contamination

supporting closed-loop recycling. This technology has been proven for PET

from clear bottles (WRAP 2008b), and more recently HDPE from milk

bottles (WRAP 2006).

Bottles can be segregate manually or automatic in such several

techniques. The study wants to address the problem of several

classifications of plastic bottles such as food grade (PETE) and industrial

grade (NON-PETE) must not be mixed or recycled together because of

toxics inside it.

This study aims to develop a system that will determine what given

clear plastic bottles (PET and non-PET) will be sorted. Once this study is

implemented, those plastic manufacturers especially for waste bottles

sorter facilities will surely get the benefits by it. The importance of this study

is to make it more reliable and reusable on its sorting procedure and make

it capable of focusing in segregation and identification of the objects.

This study conducts a procedure of identifying the PET and non-PET

bottles through focusing on clear or transparent plastic bottles using a

setup of device develop by several components. A conveyor belt,

sending samples to a sensor attach to Arduino Uno and detect object

then will be run by a program code through Arduino IDE and Python. This

study will not provide to covered wastes like papers, glass, or metallic. The

purpose is to segregate the specific target object one at a time and to

avoid clear PET bottles mixing to other clear non-PET bottles.

 Chapter 2

Review of Related Literature

2.1 Types of Plastic Bottles

Plastic bottles typically used in some several ways and there are

different types of plastics to be considered.

2.1.1 PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate)

Most common thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family

and is used in fibers for clothing, containers for liquids and foods,

thermoforming for manufacturing, and in combination with glass fiber for

engineering resins. It may also be referred to by the brand names Terylene

in the UK, Lavsan in Russia and the former Soviet Union, and Dacron in the

US. The majority of the world's PET production is for synthetic fibres (in

excess of 60%) with bottle production accounting for about 30% of global

demand (Ji, Li Na June 2013). PET was patented in 1941 by John Rex

Whinfield, James Tennant Dickson and their employer the Calico Printers'

Association of Manchester, England. E. I. DuPont de Nemours in Delaware,

United States, first used the trademark Mylar in June 1951 and received

registration of it in 1952 (Whinfield, John Rex and Dickson, James

Tennant,1941).
 Figure 2.1 Polyethylene Terephthalate

2.1.2 HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene)

A thermoplastic polymer produced from the monomer ethylene. It is

sometimes called "alkathene" or "polythene" when used for HDPE pipes.[1]

With a high strength-to-density ratio, HDPE is used in the production,

corrosion-resistant piping, geo membranes and plastic lumber. HDPE is

commonly recycled, and has the number "2" as its resin identification

code.

Figure 2.2 High Density Polyethylene

2.1.3 PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride)

Is the world's third-most widely produced synthetic plastic polymer,

after polyethylene and polypropylene. It is also used in making bottles,

non-food packaging, food-covering sheets,[8] and cards (such as bank or

membership cards). It can be made softer and more flexible by the

addition of plasticizers, the most widely used being phthalates (M. W.

Allsopp; G. Vianello 2012).

 Figure 2.3 Polyvinyl Chloride

2.1.4 LDPE (Low-Density Polyethylene)

A very flexible material with very unique flow properties that makes

it particularly suitable to plastic film applications like shopping bags. LDPE

has high ductility but low tensile strength which is evident in the real world

by its propensity to stress when strained.

Figure 2.4 HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene)

2.1.5 PP (Polypropylene)

It is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications.

It produced via chain-growth polymerization from the monomer

propylene. It belongs to the group of polyolefins and is partially crystalline

and non-polar. Its properties are similar to polyethylene, but it is slightly

harder and more heat resistant. It is a white, mechanically rugged

material and has a high chemical resistance (Kenneth S. Whiteley, T.

Geoffrey Heggs, Hartmut Koch,RalphL.Mawer,WolfgangImmel,2005).

Figure 2.5 Polypropylene

2.1.6 PS (Polystyrene)

A synthetic aromatic hydrocarbon polymer made from the

monomer styrene (John Scheir, Duane Priddy, 2003). Polystyrene can be

solid or foamed, general-purpose polystyrene is clear, hard, and rather

brittle. It is an inexpensive resin per unit weight. It is a rather poor barrier to

oxygen and water vapour and has a relatively low melting point

(American Chemistry Council, Inc., 2012).

 Figure 2.1.6 Polystyrene

2.1.7 Other (BPA, Polycarbonate and LEXAN)

Figure 2.7 Other types

2.2 Programming / Microcontroller Board

2.2.1ArduinoUno

The Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328.

It has 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM

outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz crystal oscillator, a USB connection, a

power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button. It contains everything

needed to support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer

with a USB cable or power it with an AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get

started. The Uno differs from all preceding boards in that it does not use

the FTDI USB-to-serial driver chip. Instead, it features the Atmega8U2

programmed as a USB-to-serial converter. "Uno" means one in Italian and

is named to mark the upcoming release of Arduino 1.0. The Uno and

version 1.0 will be the reference versions of Arduino, moving forward. The

Uno is the latest in a series of USB Arduino boards, and the reference

model for the Arduino platform, shown in figure 2.13.

Figure 2.8 Arduino Uno

2.2.2 Arduino IDE

The Arduino integrated development environment (IDE) is a cross-

platform application (for Windows, macOS, Linux) that is written in the

programming language Java. It is used to write and upload programs to

Arduino board. That contains a text editor for writing code, a message

area, a text console, a toolbar with buttons for common functions and a
series of menus. It connects to the Arduino and Genuino hardware to

upload programs and communicate with them. Programs written using

Arduino Software (IDE) are called sketches. These sketches are written in

the text editor and are saved with the file extension .ino. The editor has

features for cutting/pasting and for searching/replacing text. The message

area gives feedback while saving and exporting and also displays errors.

The console displays text output by the Arduino Software (IDE), including

complete error messages and other information. The bottom righthand

corner of the window displays the configured board and serial port. The

toolbar buttons allow you to verify and upload programs, create, open,

and save sketches, and open the serial monitor see in Figure2.14.

Figure 2. 9 Arduino IDE

2.2.3 Python

An interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language.

Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python's design

philosophy emphasizes code readability with its notable use of significant

whitespace. Its language constructs and object-oriented approach aim

to help programmers write clear, logical code for small and large-scale

projects. Python is dynamically typed and garbage-collected. It supports

multiple programming paradigms, including procedural, object-oriented,

and functional programming. Python is often described as a "batteries

included" language due to its comprehensive standard library (Kuhlman

Dave, 2012).
 CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the methods which will be used for creating a

device where all several researches collected information in such many

ways and this will be related to the concept of a presented system. These

include the Specification of Components, Design Process, Testing, and

Analysis.

3.1 FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY

SPECIFICATION OF
COMPONENTS

 Hardware Specification

DESIGN PROCESS

 Flowchart
 Block Diagram

TESTING

 Device Testing or
Sample Trials

ANALYSIS

 Data Analysis

Figure 3.1 A Conceptual Framework

 Figure 3.1 shows a conceptual framework of this study. This will have

divided into different phases consist of Specifications of the Components,

Design process, Testing, and Analysis.

3.1.1 Specifications of Components

The purposed of the requirements specification is to identify the

requirements for all the information for the proposed systems.

3.1.1.1 Hardware Specifications

To develop the proposed device, hardware requirements must be

needed to integrate also the software by meeting each other. These

requirements consist the following:

 Arduino Uno

 Conveyor belt 24’’ long , 6’’ width

 E3Z-B sensor

3.1.1.2 Software Specifications

This requirement needed to create a data for the development of a

proposed system. It will be the guide for functioning set to meet hardware

and work the device accurate to the main goal of the project.

 Arduino IDE 1.8.10

 Programming Python 3.7

3.1.2 Design Process

This allows a better understanding for the requirements. A plan

which a flow of the design is needed to create a detailed set of functions

for integration of such components. The process will check if the device

performs efficiently.

3.1.2.1 Flow chart

The flow chart shows how the development of proposed project

works through steps by steps cycle. This shall be contains the right methods

to ensure the users that this will have a possible result to be develop.

START

SELETION OF METHODS FOR

DETECTION

SPECIFICATIONS OF
HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE
COMPONENTS

CONSTRUCTION OF
PROPOSED DEVICE

TESTING OF DEVICE

DATA ANALYSIS

END
 Figure 3.2 Flowchart for the development process of the device

3.1.2.2 Block diagram of the device

In order to have a flourished development of the system, it requires

the specification of materials to be used, design, test, and analyse phase.

There are step by step procedures to accomplish the given diagram

below. First step, the sample materials must be present to obtain the test

procedure then it will be put to the conveyor belt which will be act as the

sender to the sensor which is the receiver of the sample test. After it will

delivered, the sensor will provide which attach to the Arduino Uno and

programming area to identify what does the sample contains then for the

final phase the sample shall be segregated in a opposite kind of trash bins.

Arduino Uno Python

Programming
PETE Plastic <<include>>
Bottle
Conveyor E3Z-B Sensor SEGREGATION
Belt Detection PROCESS
NON-PETE
Plastic Bottle
<<include>>

TRASHCAN for TRASHCAN for detected

detected PETE Bottle NON- PETE Bottle

Figure 3.3 Block Diagram of the device

3.1.3 Testing

On this phase, the system will be test if it can fully identify the samples

accurately and reliable to develop. There must be a lighting stage so that

it will emit to the surface of clear plastic bottle and able to detect

precisely.

TESTS PROPOSED APPLICATION

Detected Clear PETE plastic Detected Clear NON-PETE

bottle plastic bottle

Test #1

Test #2

Test #3

Test #50

MEAN

Table 3.1 One Sample Z-Test Results of the Application

3.1.3.1 PERCENTAGE ERROR

In percentage error also express as percentage, specify as the

difference between approximated value or measured value and an

exact value. This table will show the accuracy of the device to detect the

clear PETE plastic bottle to separate to non-PETE bottles on a percentage

 error. To calculate for the percentage error, we should use this given

formula:

𝑁𝑂𝑁−𝑃𝐸𝑇𝐸 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑏𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 − 𝑃𝐸𝑇𝐸 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑏𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛

%Error= × 100%
𝑃𝐸𝑇𝐸 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑏𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛

Figure 3.6 Percentage Error Formulas

TESTS PROPOSED APPLICATION

NON-PETE plastic bottle PETE plastic bottle

Test #1

Test #2

Test #3

Test #50

MEAN

TOTAL

PERCENTAGE ERROR

STANDARD DEVIATION

Table 3.2 Calculations for the Mean, Percentage Error and Standard Deviation
3.1.4 Analysis

Analysis expresses as the collected data coming from the tests conducted

and presented on this phase. This will allows to give a better

understanding for the researcher for the result which are came from

conducted several tests. Researchers allowed using two (2) tools for

analysing data obtained from the several conducted tests.

3.1.3.2 One Sample Z-Test

The study will be using a one sample z-test to determine if the proposed

device is accurate in detecting the PETE plastic bottle and NON-PETE plastic bottle.

The Null Hypothesis is if there is no difference in detection between a PETE bottle

to NON-PETE bottle.

𝐻0 = 𝑃𝐸𝑇𝐸𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑏𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 = 𝑁𝑂𝑁 − 𝑃𝐸𝑇𝐸𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑏𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛

The Alternative Hypothesis is if there is a difference in detection

between a rice leaf with rice blast and a rice leaf without rice blast.
 𝐻1 = 𝑃𝐸𝑇𝐸𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑏𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 ≠ 𝑁𝑂𝑁 − 𝑃𝐸𝑇𝐸𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑏𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛

Z-test statistics formula will be used to test the accuracy of the proposed

device.

Where:

α = 0.05

x̄ = PETE plastic bottle Mean

σ = Standard Deviation

n = Total no. of Tests

µ = Null Hypothesis

The variables in the equation will be used for the calculation of the z-test. α shall

be the significance level, 0.05, x̄ is the mean of the percentage from the proponent

device, σ is the standard deviation, n as the sample size and µ will be the null

hypothesis.
 The proposed application will calculate for the Z value then the z-test shall be

conducted. Since α = 0.05, the null hypothesis will be rejected if the test statistics is

greater than 1.96 or less than -1.96.

References:

Vipin Upadhyay, J. A. (2012). Solid Waste Collection and Segregation: A

Case Study of MNIT Campus, Jaipur. International Journal of Engineering

and Innovative Technology (IJEIT) .

Jin Y. The analysis of the generation character and the recycle system of

packaging waste [D]. Beijing: Beijing University of Chemical Technology,

2009

Alvaro Salmador, Javier Pérez Cid, Ignacio Rodríguez Novelle,"Intelligent

Garbage Classifier" in International Journal of Interactive Multimedia and

Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 1, Nº 1, ISSN 1989-1660

Hearn, G.L., Ballard, J.R., 2005. The use of electrostatic techniques for the

identification and sorting of waste packaging materials. Resour. Conserv.

Recycl.

WRAP 2007. In Annual local authorities Plastic Collection Survey 2007

London, UK: Waste Reduction Action Plans

WRAP 2008bLarge-scale demonstration of viability of recycled PET (rPET) in retail

packaging.

Janet Macawile and Glenn Sia Su, 2009. Local Government Officials

Perceptions and Attitudes Towards Solid Waste Management in

Dasmariñas, Cavite, Philippines. Volume 4

Wahab, D.A., Hussain, A., Scavino, E., Mustafa, M.M., Basri, H., 2006.

Development of a prototype automated sorting system for plastic

recycling. Am. J. Appl. Sci., 3(7):1924- 1928.

Department of Environment and Conservation (NSW) 2005. Benefits of

recycling Australia: Parramatta

Ji, Li Na (June 2013). "Study on Preparation Process and Properties of

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET)". Applied Mechanics and Materials. 312:

406–410.

Whinfield, John Rex and Dickson, James Tennant (1941) "Improvements

Relating to the Manufacture of Highly Polymeric Substances", UK Patent

578,079; "Polymeric Linear Terephthalic Esters", U.S. Patent 2,465,319

Publication date: 22 March 1949; Filing date: 24 September 1945; Priority

date: 29 July 1941

John Scheirs; Duane Priddy (28 March 2003). Modern Styrenic Polymers:

Polystyrenes and Styrenic Copolymers. John Wiley & Sons. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-

471-49752-3
Common Plastic Resins Used in Packaging". Introduction to Plastics
Science Teaching Resources. American Chemistry Council, Inc.
Retrieved 24 December 2012.

M. W. Allsopp; G. Vianello (2012). "Poly(Vinyl Chloride". Ullmann's

Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH

Kuhlman, Dave. "A Python Book: Beginning Python, Advanced Python, and
Python Exercises". Section 1.1, June 23, 2012

List of components

Components Quantity Price

E3Z-B omron
sensor 1pc 5,000 php

Conveyor belt 1pc 2,000 php