Marine Debris Sorting | AISORT
Application Overview — Ocean Plastic Recovery
Marine Debris Sorting in Modern Recycling Facilities
Marine debris and ocean plastic recovery presents unique sorting challenges: salt-contaminated, UV-degraded, bio-fouled materials with altered physical and spectral properties. Despite these challenges, ocean-bound and recovered marine plastic has growing market demand driven by brand commitments to ocean plastic content and premium pricing for certified ocean plastic recyclate.
Material Characteristics and Sorting Challenges
Marine debris sorting challenges: salt encrustation alters NIR spectra and can cause sensor window fouling within hours; UV degradation changes plastic color (yellowing) and surface chemistry, affecting both RGB and NIR classification; bio-fouling (barnacles, algae) adds organic contamination that must be removed before sorting; and the material mix is unpredictable — fishing nets (nylon, HDPE), ropes (PP, PET), buoys (HDPE foam), and rigid containers are all mixed together.
Recommended Sorting Technology Stack
Pre-washing (fresh water with detergent to remove salt and loose bio-fouling) → size classification (trammel or disc screen) → NIR (polymer identification despite surface degradation — may require higher-intensity NIR sources) + RGB (color sorting) + AI vision (identification of net, rope, rigid container, and other form factors). Manual QC station for heavily degraded items that sensors cannot classify.
Performance Benchmarks
| Metric | Target |
|---|---|
| Polymer ID Accuracy | >90% (degraded material) |
| Purity Target | >95% |
| Throughput | 1-3 t/h |
| Pre-Processing | Fresh water wash essential |
These benchmarks represent achievable performance with modern sensor-based sorting equipment, assuming properly sized, well-maintained equipment operating on representative feedstock. Actual results depend on specific material composition, throughput, and operating conditions.