Continued Work to Develop a Low-Cost Sensor to Detect Plastic Contamination in Seed Cotton at the Gin

US cotton is considered to have some of the lowest levels of contamination in the world. That reputation is expected by foreign and domestic mills. Despite this reputation, U.S. spinners have recently experienced some serious contamination issues with US cotton. Of particular concern are plastic contaminants – plastic trash that collects in cotton fields, black plastic film used as mulch in fields, plastic twine typically used for baling, and yellow plastic film used for round module wrap. These contaminants are typically introduced prior to ginning, but mechanical processes at the gin can tear and shred the plastics so that they become more difficult to detect and remove. Thus, the first line of defense against these contaminants should be set before or early in the gin process. For the US cotton to maintain its status as “contamination-free”, the industry must strive to prevent contaminants from entering the cotton stream and to eliminate them when they slip in undetected. Work by ARS researchers is ongoing to develop a low-cost sensor to detect plastic contamination in seed cotton. Most recently, hyperspectral imaging was employed to study the differences in visible and NIR reflectance and UV fluorescence between seed cotton and contaminants. This presentation summarizes the current research and results.