Running head: SENSORS IN WASTE SORTING

Sensors in Waste Sorting

Name

Institution
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Sensors in Waste Sorting

Definition

Sensors refer to devices or modules whose sole purpose is to detect a given input parameter or

changes in the sensor’s physical environment, then sending the information detected to other

electronic components for instance a computer processor. In the sorting an separation of wastes,

sensors with the ability to detect outputs that are different in different types of materials,

allowing for their sorting and segregation using the differences in this physical input. Some of

the sensors that are widely used in the segregation and sorting of ferrous and non-ferrous metals,

plastic, cardboard, and glass materials include eddy current, capacitive, inductive, magnetic,

photoelectric, ultrasonic, and optic sensors (Thakker & Narayanamoorthi, 2015).

Eddy Current Sensors

Eddy current sensors use the magnetic fields as the physical environmental input in order

to aid with the separation of ferrous metals from the rest of the materials making up the waste.

Eddy currents emerge as the sensor’s conductor intersects with a changing magnetic field

environment for every object, causing a current to be created within the conductor. This results

in the formation of electromagnets as a result of the magnetic fields opposing the impact caused

by the magnetic field applied to the sensors. The new electromagnets form permanent magnets

that are able to attract ferrous materials separating them from the entire collection of waste to be

separated. Only non-ferrous metals, plastic, cardboard, and glass are left after this separation that

uses eddy current sensors (Thakker & Narayanamoorthi, 2015)

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Capacitive sensors

These include the non-contact sensors with the ability to measure the position or displacement

through the identification of the material of an object using its capacitance such that the change

in capacitance occurs as the distances between the surfaces of the object changes. This clearly

brings out differences in the permittivity of every material to determine the dielectric level of the

material thus allowing separation of higher dielectric materials such as plastics.

Inductive sensors

These sensors are those that rely on Faraday’s law of induction, such that any variation in the

magnetic flux of the materials over a set number of turns yields a different voltage. In so doing,

this method is able to effectively separate ferrous and non-ferrous materials using the concept of

magnetic flux to detect non-contact magnetism in materials thus separating ferrous and non-

ferrous materials

Magnetic Sensors

Magnetic sensors are very useful in sorting the ferrous metals through detecting and measuring

magnetic field. The sensor is able to measure the magnetic field thus cutting spatial resolution

noises that may affect the sensors ability to separate ferrous and non-ferrous materials (Cui &

Forssberg, 2003).

Photoelectric sensors

A photoelectric sensor are based on light emissions as the sensor emits a light beam which can

be visible to the material to be separated, such that the sensor detects the light beam reflected

from the target material. Then it measures the change in light quantity caused by the target
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crossing the optical axis which has different characteristics for different materials. This method

is best for sorting bottles that are normally either plastic, glass, or metal.

Ultrasonic sensors

Ultrasonic sensors are used to measure the distance using ultrasonic waves such that the sensor

emits an ultrasonic wave and sends it out, then detects the wave reflected from the target

material. It can measured by calculating the time between the emission and reception which are

different for different materials allowing for the use of the sensor to separate. This method is best

for separating cardboard and tetrapack (Thakker & Narayanamoorthi, 2015).

Optic sensors

Optic sensors include NIR infrared, color line camera and X-Ray fluorescence. NIR sensors

allows for materials to reflect the light of the near infrared wavelength spectrum. The differences

in the levels of this reflection allows for the separation of different materials based on their light

reflection characteristics and are most applicable in plastic sorting (Scott, 2005). X-ray

fluorescence also uses the same principle as the rays are able to distinguish different types of

materials based on the density of the material as directed by the ease of the rays to pass through

the materials. Color-line cameras also be used in waste separation as they have the ability to

separate materials moving along a line based on their color, allowing for an easy separation of

waste items according to their color coding. The color line camera is best for sorting plastics as it

is able to identify the brightly colored plastics (Huang, Pretz, &Bian, 2010).
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References

Thakker, S., & Narayanamoorthi, R. (2015, March). Smart and wireless waste management.

In Innovations in Information, Embedded and Communication Systems (ICIIECS), 2015

International Conference on (pp. 1-4). IEEE.

Scott, D. M. (2005). A two-colour near-infrared sensor for sorting recycled plastic

waste. Measurement Science and Technology, 6(2), 156.

Huang, J., Pretz, T., & Bian, Z. (2010, October). Intelligent solid waste processing using optical

sensor based sorting technology. In Image and Signal Processing (CISP), 2010 3rd

International Congress on (Vol. 4, pp. 1657-1661). IEEE.

Cui, J., & Forssberg, E. (2003). Mechanical recycling of waste electric and electronic equipment:

a review. Journal of hazardous materials, 99(3), 243-263.