Paper and Plastic Waste Segregator Using LJC18A3-H-Z/BY Capacitive Proximity Sensor and Ultrasonic Ranging Module HC - SR04

Abstract

A garbage bin that would detect and segregate the collected waste if it is a paper or a plastic using capacitive proximity sensor LJC18A3-H-Z/BY and ultrasonic ranging module HC-SR04 was created. It would provide a notification if the bin were full of garbage and segregated waste must be collected. It was tested by its accuracy in identifying the waste and the bin’s fullness. Also, a repeatability and reproducibility test were performed to check the ability of the bin to separate paper from plastic waste. It could identify paper waste by 94.48% accurately, while plastic waste by 82.49%. The paper and plastic bin’s fullness could also be identified accurately by 87.4% and 88.8% respectively. Over-all result of the repeatability and reproducibility tests were 85.6% and 67.8% for the paper and plastic waste segregation, respectively. The result of the experimentation showed that the detection of the waste was affected by the placement of the garbage in the bin. It was recommended to conduct additional calibration on the capacitive sensor to increase the accuracy in detecting plastic waste and to alter the bin’s design to add more mechanical control in garbage placement inside the bin.