• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Friday, March 31, 2023
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Chemistry

Recycling robot could help solve soft plastic waste crisis

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
June 22, 2021
in Chemistry
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Researchers create robot that sorts soft plastic

IMAGE

Credit: University of Sydney

Despite an improvement in plastic recycling in recent years, landfill is a growing issue. Soft plastics like cling wrap and plastic bags are a major contributor to the problem, with 94 percent going to landfill in 2016-17.

Soft plastics lack adequate recycling methods as they easily entangle in waste separation machinery, leading to mechanical failure and contamination of other recyclable materials such as paper. Because of this problem, current recycling methods rely on the manual sorting of soft plastics, an often repetitive and unsafe task.

Working alongside industry partners as part of a federal government Cooperative Research Centre Project grant, researchers from the Centre for Internet of Things (IoT) and Telecommunications at the University of Sydney are developing a unique method to increase recycling of soft plastics – by creating a smart, automated robotic system that uses robotics and AI to sort recyclable waste.

The team includes Professor Branka Vucetic, Professor Yonghui Li, Associate Professor Wanli Ouyang, Dr Wanchun Liu and Senior Technical Officer Dawei Tan from the School of Electrical and Information Engineering.

“The recycling robotic automation system will use artificial intelligence and computer vision to learn how to identify different forms of recycling waste, effectively learning how to ‘see’ and ‘sort’ waste, to create separate waste streams and maintain soft plastics’ purity so they can be recycled,” said IoT expert, Professor Branka Vucetic.

“Soft plastics are a big contributor to landfill and have long been a challenge for the circular economy and waste management sector, as they have lacked an adequate and safe sorting method. Using the latest IoT techniques, we have created a custom robot to solve this issue,” said Professor Yonghui Li.

“Between 2018 and 2019, Australia generated 2.5 million tonnes of plastic waste, which included soft plastics: only 9 percent was sent to recycling while 84 percent went to landfill. We aim to drastically switch those percentages by developing a solution that allows for most soft plastic waste being recycled,” said Dr Wanchun Liu.

The researchers are working with waste management companies, IQRenew and CurbCycle, technology developers Licella, Mike Ritchie and Associates, and Resource Recovery Design to develop the system.

It will be integrated into IQ Renew’s material recovery facility as part of CurbCycle’s soft plastic recovery program, an Australian initiative that involves the household collection of recyclables that are segregated into bags prior to placing them into their kerbside recycling bin.

“Not only does our project divert household soft plastics from going to landfill; by creating a solution for the collection and sorting of waste with our industry and research partners, we’re also creating a sustainable supply chain that takes rubbish from households to end markets,” said Associate Professor Wanli Ouyang.

“The robot will identify ‘CurbyTagged’ bags and differentiate sources of plastic, separating soft plastics from the fully co-mingled recyclables,” he said.

After being separated from other waste, the soft plastics will be used for various purposes, including advanced recycling into oils and other valuable chemicals using patented Catalytic Hydrothermal Reactor technology (Cat-HTR™) created by Licella Holdings. Licella was founded by Professor Thomas Maschmeyer from the Faculty of Science alongside Licella CEO, Dr Len Humphreys, and has been supported by the University of Sydney for 14 years.

“This highly innovative materials handling process can help extend the range of the Cat-HTR conversion technology to now include increasingly challenging waste streams, highlighting the benefit of close industrial and academic collaboration,” said Professor Maschmeyer.

###

DECLARATION:

The researchers were awarded $2,999,220 as part of a Federal Government CRC-P grant. The project’s total project value is $7,638,411 and the amount allocated to the University of Sydney is $957,840.

Professor Thomas Maschmeyer from the University’s School of Chemistry holds the position of Principal Technology Consultant at Licella.

Media Contact
Luisa Low
[email protected]

Tags: Biomedical/Environmental/Chemical EngineeringChemistry/Physics/Materials SciencesElectrical Engineering/ElectronicsIndustrial Engineering/ChemistryPolymer ChemistryResearch/DevelopmentRobotry/Artificial IntelligenceTechnology TransferTechnology/Engineering/Computer ScienceTelecommunications
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Expression of death mode when flame flickering is stopped by adjusting the distance between flames

Do we understand the flickering flames?

March 31, 2023
A schematic diagram of gene control related to the improvement and water plantation of PMP22 intracellular aggregation by electrical stimulation of CMT Schuban cells

DGIST Professor Minseok Kim’s team develops an electronic medicine technology that restores abnormal protein behavior, the cause of Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease (CMT)

March 31, 2023

Fueled by $748K from NASA, WVU researchers explore alternative sources to help power space

March 30, 2023

Moiré superlattices show superpower in photonics and optoelectronics

March 30, 2023
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • ChatPandaGPT

    Insilico Medicine brings AI-powered “ChatPandaGPT” to its target discovery platform

    67 shares
    Share 27 Tweet 17
  • Northern and southern resident orcas hunt differently, which may help explain the decline of southern orcas

    44 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 11
  • Skipping breakfast may compromise the immune system

    43 shares
    Share 17 Tweet 11
  • Extinction of steam locomotives derails assumptions about biological evolution

    38 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 10

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

DGIST Professor Yoonkyu Lee’s research team has developed a high-performance transparent-flexible electronic device based on a copper-graphene nanowire synthesized by scintillation

DGIST held a graduation ceremony for the first half of 2023 (Feb.)

Do we understand the flickering flames?

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 48 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In