BACKGROUND

The following description is provided to assist the understanding of the reader. None of the information provided or references cited is admitted to be prior art.

In the United States, the total generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) in 2017 was 267.8 million tons or 4.51 pounds per person per day. Of the MSW generated, approximately 67 million tons were recycled and 27 million tons were composted. Together, more than 94 million tons of MSW were recycled and composted, equivalent to a 35.2 percent recycling and composting rate. In addition, more than 34 million tons of MSW (12.7 percent) were combusted with energy recovery and more than 139 million tons of MSW (52.1 percent) were landfilled.

SUMMARY

Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to waste management, and more particularly to a system and method for marking and identifying waste used in producing finished goods.

An illustrative embodiment disclosed herein is a method including receiving, by a waste diversion system and from a source, waste materials, inserting, by the waste diversion system and into the waste materials, one or more markers, generating, by the waste diversion system, finished goods including a portion of the waste materials, and detecting, by the waste diversion system, a portion of the one or more markers corresponding to the portion of the waste materials in the finished goods.

Another illustrative embodiment disclosed herein is a non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to receive waste materials from a source, insert one or more markers into the waste materials, generate finished goods including a portion of the waste materials, and detect a portion of the one or more markers corresponding to the portion of the waste materials in the finished goods.

Another illustrative embodiment disclosed herein is an apparatus including a processor having programmed instructions to receive waste materials from a source, insert one or more markers into the waste materials, generate finished goods including a portion of the waste materials, and detect a portion of the one or more markers corresponding to the portion of the waste materials in the finished goods.

Further details of aspects, objects, and advantages of the invention are described below in the detailed description, drawings, and claims. Both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory, and are not intended to be limiting as to the scope of the invention. Particular embodiments may include all, some, or none of the components, elements, features, functions, operations, or steps of the embodiments disclosed above. The subject matter which can be claimed comprises not only the combinations of features as set out in the attached claims but also any other combination of features in the claims, wherein each feature mentioned in the claims can be combined with any other feature or combination of other features in the claims. Furthermore, any of the embodiments and features described or depicted herein can be claimed in a separate claim and/or in any combination with any embodiment or feature described or depicted herein or with any of the features of the attached claims.

