RECOUP holds black plastic packaging forum

Plastics recycling charity RECOUP has been leading a cross-industry forum to address the barriers and improve the recycling of black plastic packaging.

A new published report has provided the latest position and the progress which has been made since the forum was set up at the end of 2017.

It represents genuine and open collaboration from RECOUP members across the plastic packaging supply and recycling chain.

The forum focused on the sorting and reprocessing of black and other undetectable coloured plastic packaging.

The work established that there are a number of solutions either available or in development including use of transparent packaging or alternative detectable colours, use of detectable black pigments, and development of sorting technology for the existing carbon black packaging.

Stuart Foster, CEO of RECOUP, said: “Despite the inevitable politics and positioning behind issues such as black plastic packaging recycling, our role at RECOUP is to bring the various groups and stakeholders together to make practical steps forward.”

“I hope we have helped to avoid knee jerk reactions to the challenge of improving plastic recycling potential, and instead have turned ambitions and collaborative thinking into actual long term solutions.”

Paul East, RECOUP Packaging Technologist, said: “We appreciate it can take time to deliver the changes needed to improve recyclability, but there is no reason why all plastic packaging can’t adopt the basic principle that it must not inhibit the sorting or recycling process, as part of the design specifications.”

“As shown in the new report, removing or coming out black in favour of a transparent pack or detectable colour has been seen as the quickest solution in many cases, and therefore most popular.”

“To balance this, the report also includes the potentially important role of black and darker plastic as a base colour as we move towards the requirement for greater recycled content.”