Materials and recyclability
The optical sorting technology used in most material recovery facilities, which cannot detect carbon-black pigmented plastics.
Near-infrared sorting identifies polymers by the way they reflect infrared light, then diverts them with air jets. It is the backbone of modern plastics sorting and the reason polymer purity is achievable at industrial throughput.
Carbon black absorbs across the near-infrared range, so a carbon-black pigmented tray or bottle registers as nothing and is sent to residue regardless of polymer. Detectable black alternatives exist and are now widely specified in categories that require dark packaging.
Full-body sleeves, metallised labels and heavy printing create the same failure in a different way, by masking the container from the sensor. Label coverage limits in design-for-recycling guidance exist for exactly this reason.
Designing packaging so it can be collected, sorted and reprocessed at scale, and graded A, B or C under PPWR.
Whether packaging is actually collected, sorted and reprocessed into new material at scale, not merely whether it is theoretically recyclable.
Adjusting EPR fees up or down according to the environmental performance of the packaging, rewarding recyclable design and penalising problem formats.
Packgine resolves your packaging to component level and applies the rules of every market you sell into.