MATERIALS | COLOURS
streams, whereas carbon black coloured items could not be sorted. Besides the spectral properties in the visible and
NIR, the packing application involves regulatory issues regarding food contact requirements, the company notes. R-Black has food packaging approvals based on its stability and non-migratory nature. Most recently R-Black received FDA approval in the US, adding to approvals which include German and French Regulations, AP (89)1 (Council of Europe Resolution on use of colourants in plastics). Holland Colours says that it has been position-
Above: With its Fibarec masterbatch series, Finke has developed a new master- batch line to satisfy the growing demand for sustainable plastic colourant systems
on processing and allows for full recyclability of the end product.
With its PCR masterbatch, Gabriel-Chemie says it
“enables its customers to recreate new functional and above all colourful plastic items from consumer plastic waste.” It offers masterbatch with carriers in rPET, rPE and rPP, which are suitable for injection moulding and films with higher thickness. Depend- ing on customer demands, lighter and effect colours as well as laser additives can be incorporated. When it comes to sorting mixed PCR streams, the issue of how to deal with black materials continues to raise its head. Many automated sorting systems use NIR (Near Infrared) detection to separate different polymers. But if coloured plastic parts contain carbon black, the NIR rays are absorbed and therefore cannot be properly detected or distinguished from one another. At least one carbon black company says the issue is not as thorny as some may say, and that sorting technologies can be made capable of “seeing” carbon black in plastics. But there are also numerous colour companies coming up with alternatives. Not exactly black, but very close to it. Al-Farben has developed R-Black, which it says
offers “the best compromise between colour tonality, opacity, polymer compatibility, non-toxici- ty, and perfect NIR detection due to a specific adjustment of its reflectivity. The key is to not absorb in the near-infrared wavelength and allow sorting systems, which are based on reflective or transmitting sensors, to properly identify different polymers. With our latest solution R-Black, black plastic becomes sustainable as it allows it to enter in the recycling cycle.” The performance of R-Black has been tested at the main recycling manufacturer facilities in Europe using NIR spectroscopic techniques, says Al-Far- ben. The recognition rate obtained shows that R-Black allows the black material to be readily sorted at the highest demanding rate into polymer
34 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | July/August 2021
ing itself as a co-designer of colour and functional solutions with a focus on sustainability, goals that are reflected in some of its newest plastic additives. SORT is its answer to the problem of how to filter out and recycle black plastics. The black pigment can be read by NIR sorting machines. “It eliminates recycling headaches, while offering the same beauty and depth of colour,” says the company. At Gabriel-Chemie, Corporate Brand Manager
Diego Karpeles says that “in an aim to increase the NIR detection rate and recycling sorting rate of black packaging products, our group has got one more product certified by the French entity COTREP; our customer and global brands can rely on a further Gabriel-Chemie black shaded, NIR- detectable and also officially certified product.” (COTREP is the Comité Technique pour le Recy-
Every PCR recyclate has its own colour. When colouring, the starting material has a strong influence on the final colour. Using the examples of caps and closures, Gabriel-Chemie illustrates how the base material affects the final colour of the product when using virgin material compared to PCR material as the carrier. Polypropylene caps with different levels of PCR: the left-most cap in each row is 100% virgin polymer, the last one is 100% PCR, and caps in between contain 50% of each (rows with three caps) or 75/25 and then 50/50
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
IMAGE: FINKE
IMAGE: GABRIEL-CHEMIE
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