An XRF machine will know within 60 seconds if the bag contains toxic heavy metals that pollute ecosystems when thrown away and, if ingested, endanger human health.
Such X-ray fluorescence spectrometers work by striking a sample with X-rays. In response, the material being tested emits an X-ray, known as fluorescence, which the equipment reads.
This portable, tabletop XRF unit used by California state officials cost between $30,000 and $40,000. Some XRF machines are gun-shaped, resembling bar code scanners. XRF machines are less sensitive than equipment that examines materials at the atomic level, but they work faster, cost less, and can read a sample as small as half a gram without destroying it.
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