Even though Black plastic is recyclable, waste sorting systems can’t recognize black pigments. The optical sorting systems used at many recycling plants can’t pick out its dark coloring in the plastic. Even if black plastic is separated, it often ends up in landfill, so we decided to took up the challenge in our hands. We approached the problem with care and creativity. With your support we can reach great results.
Black plastic is frequently used by the food-packaging industry, because it’s cheap and the dark background makes food look more appealing to consumers.
While the label on the black plastic package might say it can be recycled, and you might put it in the correct bin, after it reaches the recycling centers it’s likely to end up in a landfill.
Problem plastics
Plastic waste is polluting our ecosystems. About 8 million tons of plastic ends up in the world’s oceans every year.
But despite the growing environmental threat from plastic waste, only 14% of plastic packaging worldwide is collected for recycling.
Why is most plastic not recycled?
The container will not get recycled because only good quality, clean, plastics can go through the recycling process. Sometimes a recycling factory would perform the washing for you, but most times the plastic is deemed useless. Recycling is an energy-intensive process that becomes more costly as additional steps such as washing are added.
The new plastic is still relatively cheap to produce and creates a competitive environment in which added costs to the process make recycled plastic significantly more expensive. Therefore, for factories it might be more profitable to incinerate instead of recycling.
Thank you!
THE CHANGE IS IN YOUR HANDS -> SIGN THE PETITIONS TODAY
Petition · Ban single-use black plastic in UK
Petition · Stoppt Wegwerfplastik! Warnhinweise auf allen Produkten – JETZT!
Petition · Legislate against retailers using non recyclable black plastic food packaging
