BASF (Ludwigshafen / Germany; www.basf.com) has developed an alternative to carbon black, enabling the recycling of dark-coloured plastics. Created by the German group’s Colors & Effects R&D team, the “Sicopal Black K 0098” pigment has good near infrared (NIR) reflectivity, allowing the polymer to be detected in NIR waste sorting systems. This is unlike plastics coloured with carbon black that go undetected and end up in landfill or incinerated, BASF said.

“Building on our established Sicopal Black technology, we have developed a new member of the pigment family with the aim to optimise it for the use in packaging,” said Christof Kujat, Colors & Effects head of global technical industry management for plastics. Sicopal Black K 0098 is suitable for all commonly used plastics, including high-heat grades, and offers excellent processing stability along with colour strength, opacity and food-contact compliance, the company said.