Lower surface 2c or upper surface 2d of object to be sorted 2 is processed such that arithmetic mean roughness Ra is not less than 0.025 μm in not less than 50% of lower surface 2c or upper surface 2d, object to be sorted 2 is irradiated with infrared light, and reflected light 4 from lower surface 2c or upper surface 2d of object to be sorted 2 is received, thereby determining a resin type of object to be sorted 2 on the basis of a reflection or absorption spectrum of object to be sorted 2 obtained from reflected light 4.

A method of manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament that includes providing a polymer melt and separating the polymer melt from the extruder into at least eight streams. The multiple streams are exposed to a chamber pressure within a chamber that is below approximately 25 millibars, or another predetermined pressure. The streams are recombined into a single polymer stream. Polymer from the polymer stream is then formed into bulked continuous carpet filament.

A plastic item, such as a beverage bottle, conveys two distinct digital watermarks, encoded using two distinct signaling protocols. A first, printed label watermark conveys a retailing payload, including a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) used by a point-of-sale scanner in a retail store to identify and price the item when presented for checkout. A second, plastic texture watermark conveys a recycling payload, including data identifying the composition of the plastic. The use of two different signaling protocols assures that a point-of-sale scanner will not spend its limited time and computational resources working to decode the recycling watermark, which lacks the data needed for retail checkout. In some embodiments, a recycling apparatus makes advantageous use of both types of watermarks to identify the plastic composition of the item (e.g., relating GTIN to plastic type using an associated database), thereby increasing the fraction of items that are correctly identified for sorting and recycling. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.

A process for the segregation, sterilization, and purification of recycled plastic medical waste with the subsequent production of plastic products made therefrom is disclosed. Also disclosed is a method for the front-end segregation of recycled plastic medical waste into a polypropylene waste stream and a mixed plastic waste stream. These segregated streams are further purified through a processing method that removes contaminating fibrous, metal and other waste products. Polypropylene and mixed plastic streams isolated using these methods yield a homogenous material that can be blended with other materials for the production of raw plastic or for extrusion to form commercial plastic products. A method for tracking regulated and non-regulated medical waste stream production kinetics and chain of custody from discrete waste disposal sites is also disclosed.

The method of uniquely identifying a product for subsequent recycling Includes marking a surface of the product with a first trace signature being representative of the manufacturer of the product.

A recycling device includes a main body, an input module, an identification module, a detection module, a packaging module, and a storage module. The input module includes at least one input port for depositing a waste product of one type. The identification module identifies the deposited waste product and determines whether the type of the deposited waste product matches the corresponding input port. The detection module detects a purity of the deposited waste product when the type of the deposited waste product matches the corresponding input port. The packaging module packages the deposited waste product when the purity of the deposited waste product is qualified. The storage module stores the deposited waste product.

A method for reclaiming bio-based plastic material is disclosed, including providing a bio-based plastic article, the article including an identifier, determining article content information from or via the identifier, and recycling the article based on article content information. Further, a system for reclaiming bio-based plastic material is disclosed, including an apparatus or device configured to obtain or determine a bio-based material content associated with a plastic article, and an apparatus or device configured to sort the plastic article based upon the bio-based material content of the plastic article. A bio-based plastic article comprising recycled bio-based material is also disclosed.

The invention relates to an apparatus for identifying one or more substances in a materialin particular, wherein the material is present in granulate formcomprising at least one light sourcepreferably in the form of a laserfor irradiating a sample of the material with light of at least one wavelength, a detector for detecting the light re-emitted and/or transmitted by the sample, and an analysis device for the spectroscopic analysis of the detected light, wherein

the analysis device interacts with the detector, and these are embodied in such a way for analyzing the detected light by means of a) UV/VIS spectroscopy and/or b) fluorescence spectroscopy and/or c) Raman spectroscopy and/or d) absorption spectroscopy,
and for creating a first identification result for at least one substance of the sample and, in the case of an ambiguous first identification result, creating a second identification result for the at least one substance on the basis of a e) fluorescence light decay time analysis, FLZA,
wherein the at least one substance is then at least partly identified on the basis of the first identification result or on the basis of the first and second identification results.

Solid waste that includes a mixture of wet organic material and dry organic material can be are separated using mechanical separation to produce a wet organic stream enriched in wet organics and a dry organic stream enriched in dry organics. The separated wet organic stream and dry organic stream are separately converted to renewable or recyclable products using different conversion techniques particularly suited for the separated wet and dry organic streams.

A computer-implemented method can be used for controlling sorting of plastic compounds. The method involves providing a computer-based database containing entries on a plurality of markers each identifying a specific plastic compound; receiving scan data from a sample of a plastic compound; identifying a marker in the sample of the plastic compound based on the received scan data and the plurality of markers of the database; and sorting of plastic compounds based on the identified marker of the sample of the plastic compound.