New Sensor Can Verify Exactly How Much Recycled Plastic Is in a Product

A device that can tell, in real time, how much recycled material is actually inside a piece of plastic has earned University at Buffalo engineer Amit Goyal two 2026 R&D 100 Awards, often called the "Oscars of Innovation." It is the first time a sitting UB faculty member has won the prize.

Goyal, a SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, led the project with fellow SUNY Distinguished Professor Thomas Thundat and computer scientist Karthik Dantu, along with co-authors Yaoli Zhao, Charuvahan Adhivarahan, Chandra Lekha Jyothula and Kunal Singh. Their work was published in Nature Communications Engineering in March 2026, and an international patent application is already filed.

The problem the device solves

Right now, when a company claims a plastic bottle or package contains a certain percentage of recycled material, there is often no quick, direct way to check that from the object itself. Verification typically relies on paperwork: manufacturers document how much recycled plastic they purchased and used, and some rely on "mass balance" accounting systems that track recycled content across a supply chain rather than measuring it in the finished product.

That gap matters more than it used to. Germany's rules transposing an EU directive already require single-use PET beverage bottles to contain at least 25 percent recycled plastic by mass as of this year, a threshold set to rise to 30 percent by 2030 and expand to all single-use plastic bottles. Rules like these are becoming more common across the world as governments try to force demand for recycled material, but they are only as good as the ability to verify compliance.

How it works

Goyal's team combined several sensing methods, including triboelectric analysis, dielectric and impedance spectroscopy, capacitance measurement and mid-infrared spectroscopy, and paired them with machine learning trained to recognize the resulting signal patterns. The combination lets the device estimate the percentage of recycled plastic in a sample directly, without destroying it or relying on a company's own paperwork.

"By fabricating such a device, we hope to enable widespread, real-time monitoring of recycled plastics in commercial products," Goyal said, describing the goal as moving the technology "from low technology readiness levels related to fundamental science" toward the higher readiness levels needed for real commercial use.

Why this fits inside a bigger recycling problem

Independent estimates put the share of plastic waste that actually gets recycled globally at under 10 percent, with the rate in the United States running even lower, closer to 5 to 6 percent. Most plastic still ends up landfilled or incinerated rather than reprocessed. A device that can independently verify recycled content will not by itself close that gap, but it addresses one specific bottleneck: without reliable, low-cost verification, both regulators and recycling-conscious buyers are left trusting label claims they cannot easily check.

Recognition and what comes next

Alongside the R&D 100 Award itself, the project also received R&D World Magazine's Special Recognition Award for Corporate Social Responsibility. The awards, presented for nearly six decades to inventions judged for their technological significance, will be handed out at a ceremony in Scottsdale, Arizona, on November 19, 2026. Goyal's team is now working to move the sensor from a validated laboratory prototype toward a form manufacturers and regulators could actually deploy on production lines.