OPTIMISING SENSOR-BASED SORTING AND RECYCLING
The majority of conventional black plastic packaging is coloured using carbon black pigments which do not enable the plastic to be sorted using Near Infra-Red (NIR) technology widely used in plastic recycling. Carbon black pigments do not reflect in the NIR sorting devices, thus black polymers cannot be identified and sorted via this method. As a result, black plastic packaging commonly ends up as residue and is disposed of in landfill or incinerated.
A SOLUTION FOR RECYCLABILITY OF BLACK PLASTIC PACKAGING
With the increasing demand from consumers and governments to produce a more environmentally friendlier product Euro Extrusions Limited will be introducing a new black HIPS colorant. With this new additive NIR sorting systems will be able to correctly identify black polymers – thus significantly reducing the amount of waste produced.
With Euro Extrusions new addition of black NIR detectable coloured HIPS, packaging producers in all industries can continue to design and offer black packaging that can be sorted by NIR technology.
