Advances in Recycling

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Smart Ideas Will Not Go to Waste as Demand Rises; Recycling; Sue Beenstock looks at the latest ways to discourage landfill. Financial Times, Oct 31, 2011.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/20d451 ... e-00144feab49a.html

Note:
(a) Biffa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biffa
(one of the UK's largest integrated waste management businesses, providing collection, landfill, recycling and special waste services to local authorities and industrial and commercial clients; founded by Richard Henry Biffa in 1919; now private)

Headquartered in Buckinghamshire (Greater London on its south east).

In the home page of the company,
http://www.biffa.co.uk/
, click "Waste Processing" in the top horizontal bar. In the new web page, click "Food Processing" whose items include:

(i) Anaerobic Digestion
http://www.biffa.co.uk/waste-pro ... obic-digestion.html
(A) The "mes-" or "meso-" in "mesophilic" is a combining form that means:
"1: mid : in the middle <mesocarp>
2: intermediate (as in size or type) <mesomorph> <meson>"

(B) mid- (adj; Middle English, from Latin medius, Greek mesos)

All definitions are from www.m-w.com.

(ii) "Poplars AD"

Here, Biffa explains in a Frequently Asked Questions page, "Both In Vessel Composting (IVC) and Anaerobic Digestion (AD) are viable processes for treating food waste and are preferable to landfilling. * * * IVC can be cheaper to build but it only produces compost and no renewable energy. AD, whilst more expensive, produces significant quantities of renewable energy with a secondary compost product, so much more value is recovered from the waste. AD is widely supported and promoted by Government and Environmental Groups."
http://www.biffa.co.uk/assets/files/Content%20PDF/Poplars_FAQ.pdf

(b) The report states, "Put your car in a car-sized coffee grinder and out the other end come shreds of ferrous and non-ferrous metals and plastic."

car_recycling_miami.flv. YouTube.com, uploaded by cashforjunk on Jun 2, 2010.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyHAfuGnbSw&feature=related

(c) The report next mentions "eddy-current separators that can repel non-magnetic metals."

(i) Wikipedia:
* eddy-current separator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current_separator
* eddy current
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_current
(This can cause a circulating flow of electrons, or current, within the body of the conductor. These circulating eddies of current have inductance and thus induce magnetic fields. These fields can cause repulsive, attractive,[2] propulsion and drag effects.)
(ii) Definitions:
* eddy current (n; First Known Use 1886): "an electric current induced by an alternating magnetic field"
* eddy (n): "a current of water or air running contrary to the main current; especially : a circular current : WHIRLPOOL"
(iii) A video clip:
COGELME - Eddy current metal separator - Plastic & PET recycling - up to 2 mm - Extreme separation. YouTube.com, Uploaded by infocoge on Apr 4, 2010.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu6IQkLH8Rc

(d) The web site of ZenRobotics,
www.zenrobotics.com/
, says little.
  
Robot Separates Recyclables from Other Garbage. YouTube.com, uploaded by NTDTV on Jun 22, 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAf_iVuZ-vU
(e) For spectroscopic camera, see spectroscopy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectroscopy
(the study of the interaction between matter and radiated energy; Historically, spectroscopy originated through the study of visible light dispersed according to its wavelength, eg, by a prism)