OT(ish) - recycling black plastic

David · 2018-02-11T13:10:23+00:00

"Each year, over 1.3 billion black CPET trays are used in packaging in the UK and, despite being technically fully recyclable, it is not currently possible to effectively sort them from other materials at a materials recovery or plastic recycling facility and so the trays often get sent to landfill or incineration. The reason for this is that the main pigment used to colour black plastic, carbon black, is not detectable by the near- infra-red (NIR) optical sorting equipment, because it does not allow the light to pass through. Because of these ongoing problems with sorting black plastic, last week, WRAP released updated guidance calling on local authorities to add black plastics to their ?not recycled? lists. The statement advised local councils to first check with their processor if black plastic can be included in household recycling and to update their guidelines if it cannot." Interesting article. Our local council doesn't exclude black PET but a cynical person might think that collecting it then sending it to land fill might help to meet recycling targets. If black plastic can't be recycled then I assume that it costs more to send it for sorting and then send it to land fill than to just chuck it straight in the waste bin. I did note that the black plastic tray that prompted me to check this didn't have any recycling symbol on it to identify the materials. The cardboard sleeve said "check with your council". The phrase "the statement advised local councils" doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence that anything will have happened. Cheers Dave R

Feb 11, 2018 21 Replies

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Max Demian 8 years ago

What about the collars on the neck that form part of the tamper evident seal? With a plastic bottle they may be a different plastic and with a glass bottle they can be plastic or metal. The metal ones can be quite a long sleeve. Do they separate the parts after crushing them?

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Martin Brown 8 years ago

They don't - there is a premium for clear glass only. Green, dirty green or brown doesn't really matter.

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