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  • 1.  Carbon black masterbatch recyclability

    Posted 06-15-2022 12:18 PM
    In some recycling streams, carbon black absorbs the light from vision system and the sensor doesn't recognize the plastic.

    We have heard that not only black color, but also other color that contains a portion of carbon black (reds, greys) also cannot be sorted correctly. However, the only information we have been able to find is that "dark" colors that contain carbon black affect recyclability. Seems a bit open to interpretation, as dark could mean any opaque color that contains carbon black, or could be a scale of dark v. light color...

    Does anyone have guidance or resources on this?

    Thank you,

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    Danelle Devine
    COMPAX
    SLC, UT
    danelle@compaxpackaging.com
    (801) 440-0581
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  • 2.  RE: Carbon black masterbatch recyclability

    Posted 06-16-2022 09:25 AM
    Most near-infrared (NIR) sorting machines at material recovery facility(MRF) cannot recognize black items as black colorant absorbs the light waves and return no signature. See below link from APR, under Color - Black and dark colors. They have 2 test methods: the 1st one can be done by a NIR Spectrophotometer. I believe the 2nd one is for the items to go through a test environment.  

    The Association of Plastics Recyclers | HDPE Guidance Table (plasticsrecycling.org)

    Thanks.

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    Yang Li CPP
    Global Business Coordinator
    TricorBraun
    St. Louis MO
    (314) 983-2077
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    Original Message


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