As well as work to develop the inline NIR detection system, the SuperCleanQ project, also carried out work to determine the influence that PLA and oxybiodegradable additives had on the properties of rPET.

The eye comes from the croissantlike truncation of a woman’s head in Picasso’s 1936 “Straw Hat With Blue Leaves,” a form Mr. Johns has worked with for years.

“Are you a policeman?” Conroy said. I gave him my most coppish deadpan stare.

All vegetation and tree stumps were sent to a local recycling facility to be turned into biomass.