Waste watchers.

• Position: ENVIRONMENT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology's research on plastic soda bottles - Brief article

What happens to that plastic soda bottle or paper cup once you toss it? That's what researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology would like to know. M.I.T.'s Senseable City Laboratory is following 3,000 pieces of trash--mostly from Seattle, Washington--through the waste-disposal system.

It will take researchers months to analyze art the data generated by the electronic tags glued to aluminum cans, milk cartons, and other trash. But they've already found that some garbage reaches its destination in two days, white other items take four or five weeks to reach landfills or recycling...