Black plastics: A farewell tour or is there life after death?

26 Mar 2019 --- As the drive for more sustainable packaging has intensified, the demand for black plastics is ebbing away. Despite the relative cost-effectiveness and shelf-appeal of black plastics in applications such as ready meals, they are notoriously difficult to recycle, meaning many leading retailers have taken action to remove them from stores. Does this spell the end for black plastic packaging or will new innovations and technologies designed to increase the recyclability of the material carve out a new future?

Several leading supermarkets have taken action against black plastics. For example, in January, Waitrose discontinued the use of black plastics across hundreds of its own-label products. It plans to completely eradicate black plastics from its own-label products by the end of 2019. Likewise, this month, Asda swapped all of its fresh product trays from black plastic to clear.

Unlike clear or white plastic, black plastics cannot typically be detected by machines used in the post-use plastic sorting process and the dark pigment limits its uses in recycling streams. As a result, these plastics have a lower market value and most Material Recycling Facilities (MRFs) view them as contaminants, with landfill or incineration often being the most cost-effective options for their disposal.

Mike Jackson, Board Member of The UK Recycling Association, believes that there can be a place for black plastics in a more sustainable future if the recyclability of the material can be improved.

“If there are other colors to use that are easier to recycle, then we should use them. If we are using black plastic simply because it looks pretty on the shelves then that should potentially be banned,” he tells PackagingInsights. “However, I think black plastic could have a place if innovation in the recycling industry finds a way to successfully sort and recycle black plastics.”

Could black plastics be recycled after all?
Initiatives to combat the recycling challenges that black plastics present are becoming more prevalent. In June 2018, UK packaging supplier Faerch Plast announced that it was working collaboratively with Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Sainsbury’s and leading UK waste reprocessor Viridor to convert recycled black plastic into new food grade packaging. The company claims that the project has seen 120 tons of black plastic (eight million items) recycled each month since July.

How a sorting line could look using the Digimarc watermark. Credit: Gian De Belder. Similarly, Procter & Gamble (P&G) has been experimenting with watermarking technology, which is designed to add efficiency and precision to the sorting process of difficult-to-recycle materials such as opaque and black plastics. Watermark technologies have been developed by partner companies Digimarc and FiliGrade.

“Big retailers such as Wegmans in the US use watermarks commercially in their private label brands. Also, Walmart is looking into what this technology can offer to them. Ultimately, if everyone uses this technology then it could become free for recycling purposes,” explained Gian De Belder, Packaging Technologist, Sustainable Packaging Development at P&G, during the recent Petcore Conference 2019.

However, Tom Rose, Innovation Manager at Impact Solutions, notes that there are limitations to watermarking technologies in terms of creating a sustainable circular economy. “They only allow the identification and separation of black plastics, which can already be done by a variety of systems. Ultimately, however, they do not address the larger challenge of the limited market for black or colored recyclate,” he tells PackagingInsights.

Innovating within this space, a UK collaboration between recycling compliance scheme Ecosurety, plastic innovations specialist Impact Solutions, reprocessors Impact Recycling and plastics injection moulder company McLaren Plastics was awarded £800,000 (US$1059,000) by the UK Government’s Innovate grant scheme last month in a bid to accelerate its recycling technology. The technology seeks to be the first commercially accessible process for removing the pigment in colored, rigid plastics, including black plastics, without destroying the polymers. It has the potential to create a new market for currently low-value, unrecycled plastics through the production of a reusable plastic feedstock.An example of Ampacet's REC-NIR-BLACK carbon black-free solutions, which can be sorted by NIR optical sensors.

Is black the new black?
Plastics packaging specialist Ampacet has found a designed-in solution to the issue of black plastics recycling with the developments of its REC-NIR-BLACK carbon black-free products. These products are near-infrared (NIR) transparent, which allows them to be sorted with NIR optical sensors for recycling. This technology enables the reuse, repair and recycling of black packaging waste and allows recyclers to valorize this waste and support the circular economy.

Innova Market Insights identified “Recyclable by design” as its number one trend in packaging for 2019. The market researcher cited widespread bans on single-use plastics, the implementation of China’s “National Sword” policy and increasing media attention around the environmental scourge of plastic pollution as reasons for the increased demand for recycle-ready packaging solutions.

At the same time, some suppliers are innovating to fill the market gap left by wide-scale discontinuation of black plastic packaging. A notable example comes from biodegradable packaging specialist KCC Packaging. It has developed a compostable food tray solution coined Riji as an attractive alternative to black plastic trays.

“We are introducing our new Riji tray which is a sugarcane tray with a moisture barrier coating so that you can put wet foods in it and keep it for the shelf-life that is required at retail. This means it works very well for ready meals, but also other areas,” Kevin Clarke, Managing Director, KCC Packaging, told PackagingInsights during last week’s Pro2Pac show in London.

“It's been a long, tortuous journey of development – 12 years – but we are now going into production and the line is being installed now at our factory so that we can offer this to the UK market. There is also interest from abroad.”

KCC Packaging's Riji compostable food trays.Clarke explains that the main technical challenge was creating a barrier that was ovenable and microwavable, yet still suitable to pulp as a paper material for home composting. The tray has a number of benefits for operators because it can withstand higher temperatures – up to 250 degrees – while plastic trays can only typically be heated up to 200 degrees before they begin to go soft and melt. The Riji tray will remain rigid even at these high temperatures, Clarke explains.

“During Pro2Pac, we have already taken over 100 enquires from people looking to move away from plastic dependency,” Clarke continues. “Plastic-alternatives are in the ascension. They are more expensive, but as they become more common, they will become more acceptable as a priced item. We have been talking to retailers for a long time and the emphasis has gone from trying to match plastic to understand that it costs more, and putting more budget into doing this.”

Recent launches such as Ampacet’s REC-NIR-BLACK carbon black-free products and new recycling technologies such as watermarking suggest that black plastic packaging can survive the industry’s sustainability drive through new investment and innovation. However, the popularity of innovations such as KCC Packaging’s Riji trays demonstrates that plastic-alternatives will continue to claim market share in the food and beverage sector.

By Joshua Poole