Aeroplas pot up recyclable plantpots for kerbside recycling without carbon black

Aeroplas, a member of RECOUP, has launched a plant pot range suitable for kerbside recycling.

While 76 per cent of councils collect plastic pots, tubs and trays, there are only a handful who collect plant pots.

To help move this forward, Aeroplas have worked with numerous raw material suppliers to provide a range of colours which are Carbon free, as Carbon Black pigment absorbs Infra-Red from detection systems, hindering recycling.

As a long-standing member of RECOUP, Aeroplas provided the plastic recycling charity with samples of plant pots manufactured from 100 per cent reprocessed carbon free PP, for testing on NIR detection systems.

Tests were arranged at the high tech TOMRA testing centre in December 2017. The samples comprised of 8 different colours, including a carbon free black. The samples were correctly identified as Polypropylene by NIR scanning.

Stuart Foster RECOUP CEO said: “This is a valuable fraction of plastics and I see no reason why it shouldn’t be included in household recyclables collections subject to meeting usual good practice collection requirements, namely being clean and empty.”

Alex Everett, Aeroplas Sales Manager, said: “We have been working very hard to find materials which will allow us to offer packaging in a closed loop system of recycling, pots which would normally end up in landfill can now be successfully sorted and recycled.”

WRAP’s Plastic Specialist Bernard Chase, said: “Designing plastic packaging in a way that enables it to be easily collected in the household, easily sorted by Polymer type and easily recycled into new products at end of life is a fundamental principle of a truly circular approach to resource efficiency. WRAP is therefore delighted to be working in collaboration with RECOUP and Aeroplas to achieve such a highly desirable outcome for plastic plant pots.”