From: bretcahill@aol.com   
      
   > >Optical taggants might be more realistic, even cheaper for the plastic   
   bottle manufacturer as well as the separation equipment manufacturer.  Lasers   
   on the separation machine see the right color reflected from a water bottle   
   and a short compressed air    
   blast knocks it off the conveyor belt.  Skippy peanut butter does something   
   similar with burned peanuts.   
   >    
   > In the UK they look at the bottles with UV (I think) and it tells them   
   > what type of plastic it is. It doesn't work with black plastic since   
   > the carbon used to blacken it absorbed the UV. The machines here   
   > already sort the types of plastics they can recycle out without any   
   > additional stuff on the item.   
      
   Maybe the UK is more diligent but in the U.S. that's "aspirational"   
   recycling.  You put the stuff in the blue bin and pretend it's being separated   
   and recycled.  In reality no one separates the stuff so 80% ends up in a   
   landfill.   
      
      
   Bret Cahill   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)