RecyClass (Brussels; www.recyclass.eu), an initiative by Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE, Brussels / Belgium; www.plasticsrecyclers.eu) has developed a standardised protocol that provides third-party evaluation of the sortability of a company’s plastic packaging. The Sorting Evaluation Protocol for Plastic Packaging was developed in collaboration with Suez.Circpack (Paris / France; www.suez.com) and the National Test Centre Circular Plastics (NTCP, Heerenveen / The Netherlands; www.ntcp.nl).

The protocol is said to be applicable for the following polymer streams: flexible polyethylene and polypropylene, PET bottles and trays, and rigid HDPE, PP and polystyrene. It aims to pinpoint design issues that could result in a specific product ending up in a different stream because it was not properly detected during sorting. Product detectability can be hampered when a label or a sleeve is made of a different polymer than the product’s main body.