Clariant (Muttenz / Switzerland; www.clariant.com) has new “Cesa-IR” additive masterbatches that make dark-coloured plastics detectable to near-infrared (NIR) sensors in automated sorting systems. The Swiss speciality chemicals group notes that many companies use black packaging to brand certain products, with much of the dark-coloured material entering the recycling stream not being recovered. “For that reason, many brand owners have been pressured to move away from black for environmental reasons,” says Alessandro Dulli, global head of packaging for Clariant Masterbatches.

The new additives help to resolve that issue and enable recycling. Cesa-IR formulations allow the detection in polymer sorting systems of black HDPE and LDPE in injection and extrusion blow-moulded products, black polypropylene in films and injection-moulded products and black PET and C-PET in sheets and films. In tests comparing PP containing carbon black, Clariant says PP material using the Cesa-IR masterbatch has “reflectivity levels approaching those of uncoloured PP.”