Gabriel-Chemie (Gumpoldskirchen / Austria; www.gabriel-chemie.com) has a masterbatch that makes it possible for dark-coloured and black plastic products to be detected by near-infrared (NIR) sensors and thus be properly sorted out for recycling. The carbon used for darkening plastics absorbs radiation in the visible and infrared wavelength range, and this makes black plastic products undetectable by sorting machines that usually have NIR sensors.

The NIR-reflective and sortable thermoplastic masterbatch is food-contact approved and laser-markable, according to Gabriel-Chemie. It can be used for extrusion and injection moulding, among other processes. The masterbatch can be produced using the standards ISO 22000 (food-contact materials) and ISO 13485 (medical products).

In addition to the NIR product range, the company has colours based on post-consumer recycled (PCR) polypropylene – see Plasteurope.com of 13.03.2019.