Materials and recyclability
The sorting plant that separates mixed recyclables into material streams, and the practical arbiter of whether packaging is recyclable.
A material recovery facility receives mixed collected recyclables and separates them by material using screens, magnets, eddy currents, optical sorters and manual picking. Whatever cannot be separated economically becomes residue and is landfilled or incinerated.
MRF capability is why recyclability is a local question. A facility with polymer-specific NIR sorting can recover PP trays; one without cannot. Design-for-recycling guidance is essentially a description of what these machines can and cannot do.
Sorting yield also determines fee levels. Materials that generate high residue rates cost the system more, and that cost is passed back through base rates and eco-modulation.
The optical sorting technology used in most material recovery facilities, which cannot detect carbon-black pigmented plastics.
Whether packaging is actually collected, sorted and reprocessed into new material at scale, not merely whether it is theoretically recyclable.
The per-tonne charge for a packaging material category before eco-modulation bonuses or penalties are applied.
Packgine resolves your packaging to component level and applies the rules of every market you sell into.