[FredL (OP)]

A few weeks ago, I spent a few quiet hours sorting the contents of a large container of used hardware (bolts, nuts, nails, washers, etc., etc.).  It occurred to me that I could start my own hardware store by recycling the contents of my garage.  It further occurred to me that worldwide recycling will not become a reality until software is written to enable a machine to reliably sort all sorts of items.  Once it is written, it will become cost effective to recycle all sorts of things.  Imagine an unmanned, solar powered, trash collecting boat that constantly plucks plastics from the oceans. How about a machine that sorts nuts and bolts by size and type and packages them for re-sale, supplying a whole new industry in the sale of used hardware and saving all the energy used in the recycling and manufacturing processes whereby they would have been melted down and re-created.

[chris]

Do you think this would actually constitute "useful" recycling? Surely the energy invested in collecting and sorting a handful of nuts and bolts from everyones' garages would far outweigh any benefits of recycling in the first place? I'm skeptical.

Chris

[Madidus_Scientia]

Nuts and bolts don't really cost so much that you'd try to get second hand ones, but I suppose a robot that could identify rubbish as well as a human might be useful for sorting cardboards from the different types of plastic and metals etc.

[syhprum]

Nuts and bolts deteriorate after under going a tightening/undoing cycle, you should always throw them away and use new ones for any critical application.