From: mlist4@infohit.me.uk   
      
   On Fri, 21 Jun 2019 20:56:09 -0700 (PDT), Bret Cahill wrote:   
      
   >> >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.   
      
   It doesn't happen everywhere but you do see on the news occasionally   
   that somewhere has just installed a waste separator that does this. Our   
   supermarkets are trying to get rid of the black food trays, plastic   
   packaging in general, because of the recycling problem. I noticed that   
   our local council tip now has a bay for 'burnable' items that are burnt   
   to generate power.   
      
   --   
   Regards - Rodney Pont   
   The from address exists but is mostly dumped,   
   please send any emails to the address below   
   e-mail	rpont (at) gmail (dot) com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)