The goal of this work was instant identification of post-consumer plastics
by laser induced plasma spectrometry (LIPS). LIP spectra from plastics in a
200-800 nm spectral window were compared with reference spectral libraries
stored in a computer. The libraries consisted of representative spectra fr
om different groups of recycled plastic samples. The plasma emission spectr
a of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high density polyethylene (HDPE), po
lyvinyl chloride (PVC), low density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP)
and polystyrene (PS) were studied. Simple statistical correlation methods
including linear and rank correlations were used. The probabilities of corr
ect identification ranged from 0.8 to 1 with values close to unity for most
of the polymers studied.