Waste separation method

A method of waste separation, the method comprising:

• irradiating the waste by a source of radiation;
• capturing an image of the waste when irradiated by the source of radiation;
• wherein an item in the waste is provided with a pattern, the pattern being provided in or on a surface of the item, the pattern forming a repetition of dots, a waste separation code being stored in a sequence of adjacent ones of the dots,
• wherein the source of radiation provides irradiation on at least part of the surface of the item,
• wherein each dot forms a bump or recess of the surface of the item, wherein, seen along a direction of irradiation, the dots form leading and trailing edges of the surface of the item, and wherein the irradiation on at least part of the surface of the item forming by the dots an image of highlights at the leading edges and shades at the trailing edges on the surface of the item, and wherein capturing the image of the waste when irradiated by the source of radiation comprises capturing the image of highlights at the leading edges and shades at the trailing edges,
• processing the image to detect the pattern;
• deriving the waste separation code from the sequence of adjacent ones of the dots of the pattern, wherein the captured image of highlights and shades provides an image of leading and trailing edges wherein the highlights represent the leading edges and the shades represent the trailing edges, and wherein the waste separation code is derived from the leading edges and/or the trailing edges in the image of leading and trailing edges;
• and
• separating in accordance with the waste separation code the item comprising the pattern from the waste.