German plastics pigment producer Karl Finke (Wuppertal; www.finke-colors.eu) says it has developed a range of detectable black masterbatches for standard packaging plastics such as HDPE, polypropylene, polystyrene and PET. A concentration of 5% of the carbon-free “Fibaplast” NIR additive in a product enables near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) technology used by recyclers to sort and separate plastics to “reliably detect” the waste plastic packaging.

NIR technology has difficulty detecting material coloured with carbon black because the element absorbs much of the infrared radiation. This renders the plastic virtually invisible to such systems, raising the difficulty of separating different polymers into the correct streams. Following successful trials with leading sorting-machine manufacturers, Cotrep (Paris / France; www.cotrep.fr), a technical committee for the recycling of plastic packaging in France, certified that Fibaplast NIR black masterbatch in rigid polyethylene and PP packaging can be sorted by NIR technology in standard facilities for handling post-consumer plastic packaging.

Finke CEO Karl Finke said Fibaplast NIR closes a gap for black-coloured plastic materials in the circular economy. The company added that Fibaplast NIR can be tailored to applications “within a very short time”.