Recycling methods and systems, and related plastic containers
US12348840B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 15, 2024 |
| Grant date | Jul 1, 2025 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 15, 2044 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L2209/608
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
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.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.