Recycling Contamination Remover (RCR)

We developed a prototype system for cleaning plastic food containers for food courts and cafeteria, making them more recyclable. This was the final product for Product Design and Development, co-taught by MIT Sloan Business school, and Rhode Island School of Design. I played a major role in design and creating our prototypes, as well as the final validation and testing.

The state of recycling is unfortunately dire. We produce 300 million tons of plastic each year, and 91% of this goes unrecycled. My team interviewed several stakeholders in the plastic-recycling chain including end-users, facilities and recycling plants. In terms of plastic for catering industry, a significant reason why plastic isn't recycled is contamination: the inclusion of non-recyclables into recycling bags. For recycling plants, seperating non recyclables is costly.

After interviewing stakeholders, it became clear to us that we could make the greatest impact in the stage between the recycling bin and recycling plant. Several ideas were proposed, and the RCR was decided upon as our final concept. The RCR has several subsystems: a sorting mechanism, which would use a simple classification neural network, a mechanical subssystem, which would seperate classified objects, and a cleaning subsystem, which would use high pressure water to remove food particulate.

Final Product Presentation

Prototype Results

Pictures