Systems and methods for indicating a quality of grouped items

• US 20080061124A1
• Filed: 09/06/2006
• Published: 03/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Re Community Holdings II, Inc. (Republic Services Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Casella Waste Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Kintzer, John A., Langlois, Timothy A., Cronin, John
• Granted Patent: US 7,561,045 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/376
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

Systems and methods for determining a relative quantity of recyclable items with respect to a total number of items are disclosed. In one embodiment of the present invention, a computer-implemented method includes reading an identifier respectively associated with at least some of a total number of items. The computer determines a number of identifiers associated with the recyclable items. The computer also receives the total number of items, and computes the relative quantity of recyclable items by dividing the number of identifiers associated with the recyclable items by the total number of items.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for determining a relative quantity of recyclable items with respect to a total number of items:

reading an identifier respectively associated with at least some of the total number of items;

receiving by the computer a number of identifiers associated with the recyclable items;

receiving at the computer a total number of items; and

computing the relative quantity of recyclable items by dividing the number of identifiers associated with the recyclable items by the total number of items.

2. The computer-implemented of claim 1, further comprising removing at least a portion of the total number of items when the relative quantity is less than a predetermined threshold.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the identifiers comprise radio frequency identifier tags.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising removing at least a portion of the total number of items when the relative quantity is less than a predetermined threshold.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising the computer accessing a data repository to determine the number of identifiers associated with the recyclable items.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising generating an alert if an identifier is associated with a banned waste item.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising generating an alert if an identifier is associated with a banned waste item.

8. A computer-implemented method for determining a relative weight of recyclable items with respect to a weight of a total number of items, comprising:

reading an identifier respectively associated with at least some of the total number of items;

determining by the computer a number of identifiers associated with the recyclable items;

determining by the computer a total weight of the recyclable items by multiplying the number of identifiers associated with the recyclable items by the weight of each recyclable item;

receiving a weight of the total number of items; and

computing the relative weight by dividing the total weight of the recyclable items by the weight of the total number of items.

9. The computer-implemented of claim 8, further comprising removing at least a portion of the total number of items when the relative weight is less than a predetermined threshold.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the identifiers comprise radio frequency identifier tags.

11. The computer-implemented of claim 10, further comprising removing at least a portion of the total number of items when the relative weight is less than a predetermined threshold.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising the computer accessing a data repository to determine a weight of the recyclable items.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising generating an alert if an identifier is associated with a banned waste item.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising generating an alert if an identifier is associated with a banned waste item.

15. The computer-implement method of claim 8, wherein computing the relative weight is done regularly.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising sorting the total number of items, wherein the sorting is adjusted based on the computed relative weight of the recyclable items.

17. A computer-implemented system for determining a quantity of recyclable items with respect to a total number of items, comprising:

a reader for reading an identifier respectively associated with at least some of the total number of items;

a computer that determines;

a number of identifiers associated with the recyclable items;

the total number of items; and

the relative quantity of recyclable items by dividing the number of identifiers associated with the recyclable items by the total number of items.

18. The computer-implemented system of claim 17, wherein the identifiers comprise radio frequency identifier tags.

19. The computer-implemented system of claim 17, further comprising the computer accessing a data repository to determine the number of identifiers associated with the recyclable items and the number of identifiers associated with the total number of items.

20. A computer-implemented system for determining a relative weight of recyclable items with respect to a total number of items, comprising:

a reader for reading an identifier respectively associated with at least some of the total number of items;

a scale for determining a weight of the total number of items; and

a computer that computes the relative weight of recyclable items by;

determining a first weight by multiplying the number of identifiers associated with the recyclable items by the weight of each recyclable item; and

dividing the first weight by the weight of the total number of items.

21. The computer-implemented system of claim 20, wherein the identifiers comprise radio frequency identification tags.

22. The computer-implemented system of claim 21, further comprising a data repository storing an identifier associated with the recyclable items.