Black food trays

Black food trays can go in the recycling in north London.

Black plastic can be challenging to recycle. This is not because of the material itself, but because, at the sorting facility (called a Materials Recovery Facility), it travels on a black conveyor belt. The materials then pass under 'optical sorters' which separate the plastics into different types. However, the optical sorters cannot always identify black plastic sitting on a black conveyor belt. For this reason, some black plastic might end up going to waste.

The role of supermarkets and producers

Due to the challenges of recycling black plastic, lots of supermarkets and packaging producers have stopped using it altogether. This step is welcomed by the recycling industry.

The government is due to put in place 'extended producer responsibility' (opens in a new window) reforms. This will move the full cost of dealing with packaging waste from councils to producers. This reform should encourage producers to make more-easily recyclable packaging because the cost of recycling packaging is less than disposing of it.