Before recycling, most plastics are sorted according to their resin type. In the past, plastic reclaimers used the resin identification code (RIC), a method of categorization of polymer types, which was developed by the Society of the Plastics Industry in 1988. Polyethylene terephthalate, commonly referred to as PET, for instance, has a resin code of 1. Most plastic reclaimers do not rely on the RIC now; they use various sorting systems to identify the resin, ranging from manual sorting and picking of plastic materials to automated mechanical processes that involve shredding, sieving, separation by density, air, liquid, or magnetic, and complex spectrophotometric distribution technologies e.g. UV/VIS, NIR, laser, etc. Some plastic products are also separated by color before they are recycled.