Background The recycling of plastics is complicated by the high costs involved in sorting it. Waste selection usually has to be carried out manually in sorting plants and this makes it a more expensive option than incineration and does not permit the classification according to chemical composition. Mechanical recycling can only be carried out efficiently if the plastic materials are prepared in mono-material groups of identical molecular structure. German plants proved that this segregation could be viable in the early 1990s, but only for pieces of plastic heavier than 10 grammes, such as bottles. Estimates show that 30 percent of domestic waste is plastic and 70-80 percent of this total is estimated to be small pieces. Recycling them would make a major contribution to the percentage of waste recovered and reduce the amount of non-renewable natural resources such as petroleum used. The real challenge for plastics recycling is thus to obtain high recycling rates in the treatment of ‘small’ and ‘dirty’ pieces. In Spain alone, approximately 14,600,000 tonnes of solid waste are produced each year. The recovered waste amounts to about 1,780,855 tonnes or 27 percent of the plastic consumed. Across the EU, the average percentage of plastic waste recycled is 24 percent. Objectives The project sought to demonstrate that the use of an innovative computer label would enable segregation and selection of plastics to be carried out automatically. Developed and patented by one of the project partners, the computer label would allow plastics to be selected on the basis of their chemical characteristics. This would have a significant impact on the plastic waste recycling chain. As well as developing the label itself, the project also aimed to demonstrate that the use of robots for the identification and selection of plastic materials was compatible with conventional segregation waste plants. In the long-term, the project hoped to help create the new industry of automatic recycling of plastic waste with very high outputs. Finally the project included a dissemination plan to facilitate the take-up and implementation of this technology across Europe. Results The project succeeded in designing, developing and demonstrating a label with an inserted microchip that enabled the identification and selection of plastic containers according to their chemical composition. The project showed that the implementation of this technology was technically feasible and highly reliable. The project team designed a label with an internal microchip that would carry information about the chemical composition of the plastic. It then assembled and started up a prototype automatic plant in the facilities of CONSERMANCHA. The running of this prototype was able to demonstrate that the label enabled the identification, separation and classification of the different types of plastic containers according to their chemical composition - PET, PVC, Polyvinyl etc. The results achieved proved that the label could be an innovative solution to improving plastics recycling. Widespread introduction of the technology would save a considerable amount of non-renewable natural resources such as petroleum and reduce the amount of plastic waste disposed of.