https://resource.co/article/one-show...black-plastic-
confusion-11742
"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 €śnot recycled€ť 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
--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64
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