3 ms·

Black plastic is a big deal as most of the food containers are made of black plastic, and cities have trouble recycling them, even though the plastic itself is

• userbinator 8y ago
  From that article: black doesn't reflect enough light for optical scanners to identify recycling codes, making it difficult to sort these types of containers properly I wonder if this is similar to the "face recognition doesn't work on dark skin" problem --- there was a lot of planning and design involved in the systems required to process the plastic, and even testing, but no one thought to test with black until very very late in the process? Given that people already have to sort the different types of trash, isn't it not too unreasonable to ask them to sort the plastic too?
  • mikepurvis 8y ago
    Sorting between two or three bins is fine, but there are like seven codes for recyclable containers— as a purely practical matter, it would not be realistic to place seven different bins at the curbside.
  • rcxdude 8y ago
    Despite the seperate bins you cannot trust the sorting by the public absolutely, further sorting is always required at the recycling center anyway.
• otakucode 8y ago
  Wow, I had never heard of this problem before. At least according to the article you linked, the problem isn't so much the black plastic itself but that optical scanners used in recycling facilities can't read recycling symbols and identify it. Given the amount of black plastic used (I see it all around me right now) I would think solving this problem would do a load of good.