Using Deep Learning to Detect Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Bottle Status for Recycling

Abstract

Following the recent ban of plastic waste import by China, many developed countries face challenges with their huge amount of plastic waste. Some of the countries have diverted their waste to other developing East-Asia countries like Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia. However, Malaysian government has taken strict action to send back over 3000 tons of plastic waste to its origin citing contamination. The aim of this paper is to establish mechanisms to detect the status of post-consumer PET bottles for recycling. By encouraging recycling of clean pet bottles, we ensure high quality bottles for recycling. A research based as well as experimental design approach was adopted to develop mechanisms to detect PET bottle status. During the experiment, various PET bottles were collected and images captured. A total of 1749 images were captured using raspberry Pi camera.