AR 29 - Reverse Vending Machine

Background:

By simply looking at the garbage bins around the city, or even in the College, it can easily be concluded that proper waste segregation is not being practiced. Plastics, glass, aluminum, and other materials are not properly sorted. For plastics alone, the recycling rate was recorded at only 9% according to Oceana - a non-profit organization involved in ocean conservation. One main reason that the group thought about why this happens is not because people do not know how to sort the items but because they have no reason to. Most people only do these extra steps when there is something that they can get out of it. Simply saying that it would help the environment is not enough for most people to do such things. As such, the only viable solution is to give people incentives for doing these extra steps of waste segregation. From that idea, the group decided to create a machine that can do the segregation and giving out credits or incentives automatically. 

Project Scope:

The scope of the project is limited to segregating the waste products into three categories – plastic, metal, and glass. It will not be able to further segregate the plastics, metals, and glass into more specific subcategories involving the detailed composition of the said materials. Also, the credit value per item given out by the project will not have any monetary value as it is only for demonstration purposes.

How it works?

As the materials are deposited into the machine, certain credit will be given to the user depending on the category of the material. Going into further details on the mechanism, the project uses three sensors which are inductive proximity sensor, capacitive proximity sensor, and infrared sensor. Inductive proximity can detect metal objects while capacitive proximity is able to detect all three material categories. The infrared sensor can detect both plastic and metal. Through the combination of these sensors, the type of material can be detected. Another feature of the project is the inclusion of a barcode scanner that scans any barcode that might be on the product for faster material recognition. Since there is no specific location as to where the barcode is placed, the group proposes two things: first is for users to specifically align the barcode with the scanner; second is to have a set of rollers that will rotate the material so the scanner can detect the barcode. Further automation is suggested for future projects due to limited time and funds.

When the type of material is determined, it will then be dropped into the specific garbage bin. This is done using a motor that rotates a PVC pipe which directs the item to the target bin. As soon as the material is dropped into the correct bin, a credit can be given to the user through RFID-enabled devices. For demonstration purposes, the group will be using an RFID card. The details of the credit will also be shown on the LCD screen.

All of these are done using Arduino programming.

This project, hopefully, will improve the sorting process for recyclable products and enhance the recycling process. With less material left and burned in the landfills; the deteriorating condition of the environment can be slowed down.