Black plastic is one of the most problematic forms of plastic you can find on supermarket shelves. Although it is recyclable, chances are, it won’t be. Why? Because the sorting machines at the recycling plant can’t detect them. So even if you toss that black recyclable bottle or tray into the ‘plastics’ bin, it is going to end up in the landfill anyway.
The sorting machines can’t detect black plastic because of the pigment traditionally used in the making of the plastic. It is ‘carbon black’ and the sorters use infra-red light which the carbon absorbs thus making the plastic invisible to the sensors. It gets registered as ‘residual’ and dumped into the waste category to be shipped off to a landfill.
To overcome this dilemma, Unilever UK and Ireland pioneered the development of a new detectable black pigment which it has made available to any brands keen to up their sustainable credentials. This new detectable black pigment will enable the plastic to be ‘seen’ by recycling plant scanners. The company has made the material openly available since recyclability is so urgently important for the well-being of our planet.
The new technology means an additional 2,500 tons of plastic bottles (that’s in the UK alone) can potentially be sorted and sent for recycling every year. This is the equivalent of 1,200 family-sized cars or 200 London buses of plastic.
Unilever has carried out extensive trials in collaboration with Recoup, an authority in plastic recycling, to prove the effectiveness of its plastic development. It has also partnered with waste management companies, including Veolia, Viridor, Suez, and Tomra to prove the new pigment can be technically detected.
Unilever will use these new detectable bottles for its TRESemmé and Lynx brands. They will phase them in this year, with some bottles already starting to be used. The two brands will also introduce a minimum of 30% of recycled plastic this year. Meaning, in addition to the detectable recyclable black plastic, at least 30% of the other plastic packaging used for their products will be made of recycled plastic.
The switch to detectable plastic is part of Unilever UK and Ireland’s five-point plastic plan that aims to tackle plastic waste in the UK as it works towards a closed-loop where plastic will stay within its plastic economy and not end up in the environment.
Discussing its work to overcome the black plastic issue, Sebastian Munden general manager of Unilever UK & Ireland said:
Unilever has committed globally to all our plastic packaging being reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025, and to using more recycled plastic content in our packaging, and in the UK we want to significantly accelerate this. This latest innovation moves us further towards our goal and makes a significant contribution towards the UK Plastics Pact targets. We’d like to thank our industry partners for working with us to make this possible.
