The present invention provides a resin film material produced from a resin material that includes a laminate that includes a resin layer with an evaporated metal layer, the resin film material containing a metal in the evaporated metal layer in the form of particles, wherein the metal particles are dispersed in the resin film material, and the number of metal particles with an area-equivalent diameter of 200 m or more present per cm.sup.2 of the resin film material is 1 or less. It is preferable that the resin film material is produced from a resin material that is made of a laminate group that includes the laminate that includes a resin layer with an evaporated metal layer and a laminate that includes a metal layer-free resin layer.

A system and process for separating organic material from solid waste such as material recovery facility (MRF) fines is disclosed. The fines are treated in a press, in which the fines are compressed against a wall having a set of holes. The fines are mixed with a substantial amount of water before being pressed. The water increases the amount of organic matter that is recovered from the fines. A wet fraction, extruded through the holes of the press, may be treated in an anaerobic digester.

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.

The present invention relates to a method of identifying and/or distinguishing materials by means of luminescence, wherein at least one luminescent substance is incorporated into the material and/or applied onto the material and the luminescence behaviour of the substance is analysed after excitation by means of radiation, and the use thereof for identifying and/or sorting and/or recycling and/or authenticating and/or performing a quality check and/or formulation check on materials.

A system for manufacturing bulked continuous carpet filament that is adapted for providing a polymer melt and dividing the polymer melt into a plurality of streams (e.g., at least six or eight streams) to increase a surface area of the polymer melt. The plurality of streams is then exposed to a pressure that is below approximately 5 millibars. The streams are then recombined into a single polymer stream and formed into bulked continuous carpet filament. In various embodiments, an extruder, such as a multi-screw extruder, is used to divide the polymer melt into the plurality of streams.

A method of manufacturing a plurality of colors of bulked continuous carpet filament from a single multi-screw extruder which, in various embodiments, comprises: (A) passing PET through an extruder that melts the PET and purifies the resulting PET polymer melt; (B) adding a liquid colorant to the polymer melt using a liquid metering system; (C) using one or more static mixers (e.g., up to forty static mixers) to substantially uniformly mix (e.g., homogeneously mix) the polymer melt and the liquid colorant; and (D) feed the uniformly mixed and colored polymer melt into a spinning machines that turns the polymer into filament for use in manufacturing carpet, rugs, and other products.

A system (100) for recovering recycled polyethylene plastic film material is disclosed, comprising a first size reduction station (110) for forming a coarse fraction, a separation station (120) for forming a film fraction, a contaminant removal station (130) for removing non-polyethylene materials from the film fraction, and a baling station (150) for forming a bale (20) of the plastic film material and wrapping the bale in a plastic film. A corresponding method and a bale obtained by such a method are also disclosed.

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.

The invention relates to a method for identifying and/or sorting objects, in particular for recycling materials, comprising the steps of: Linking at least one first object type to object identity information via a reference object type property uniquely identifying the first object type; performing at least one learning phase for teaching at least one KI algorithm, the learning phase comprising analyzing at least one object having the reference object type property for an object property; establishing a correlation between the object identity information and the at least one object property, the correlation comprising associating the at least one analyzed object with the first object type; analyzing at least one object for at least one object property; and calculating an object identity of the object to the first object type using the at least one KI algorithm. The invention further relates to a system for identifying and/or sorting objects based on artificial intelligence technologies.

The invention relates to a method for producing polyolefin recyclates, in particular HDPE recyclates. In a specified sequence, color-mixed polyolefin-containing groups are washed at a low temperature, washed at an increased temperature in an alkaline medium, flake-sorted, and treated at an increased temperature in order to remove migration materials. By virtue of the aforementioned method, polyolefin recyclates can be obtained with a substantially improved degree of purity compared to hitherto commercially available recyclates, said recyclates being usable in the production of novel consumer product packaging. Additionally, unpleasant odors connected to known polyolefin recyclates due to the decomposition products of migration materials formed during the extrusion process are largely prevented.