Packages and closures for packaging

Black elements with or without carbon, How to achieve a waste-sorting-friendly black color?

Black color is believed to be elegant, but also neutral and practical. A closure in this color can be easily matched with other colors of bottles or labels, achieving a perfect combination.
Our regular distribution features closures for cosmetics in this color, as well as airless or closures for detergents. Given the fact that our “stock” includes products which are most often ordered by clients, it’s the best proof that black, apart white, reigns supreme.
Out of the wide range of special order products that can be dyed in any color, from the entire Pantone palette, black is, as its name itself suggests, the black horse.
Our products are dyed by means of a classic method, i.e. adding carbon black. Black dye based on carbon is neutral to the human being.
Coal itself has been known and valued for millennia, mainly as fuel, but also as a medicine, or precisely, as a coloring agent, used in the cosmetic and processing industry.
The carbon black is the most popular, safest and versatile dye. Another advantages include easy access and the fact that the black color achieved thanks to it meets manufacturers’ and consumers’ expectations.

Unfortunately, black packaging and its elements have lost their versatility in the era of recycling.

The first problem is the fact that the most recycled plastics are colorless or have very light-transparent colors. The regranulate obtained from them can be easily processed at subsequent stages of preparation for new applications. Furthermore, it can be dyed in any color, and we can be certain that it will be exactly what we expected.

A dark color, because in these terms not only black is rejected, isn’t processed willingly, because the resulting regranulate doesn’t reach prices covering its production, making the whole procedure economically unviable.
However, if the regranulate was to be used for technical products, such as engine covers, barrels for chemicals or other items that are dyed in dark colors anyway, it shouldn't matter.
Another problem of the black whose color has been achieved with carbon black is that the universal sorters at waste sorting stations can’t see it. That “blindness” can be achieved, if as little as 0.2% of carbon black is added.
If, however, the plastic is dyed black without carbon additives, it can be detected by special NIR sensors (so-called Black Scans), if the sorting plant is equipped with them.

The problems with black and its detection by infrared-based sorting machines are due to optics and color characteristics in general. Without getting into complicated elaborations of the types of color waves and to what extent they reflect light, we should recall the statement that 'black isn’t a color.' There's a lot of truth in that, because while we can see other colors due to the fact that they reflect light, black doesn't do that. Black results from the fact that waves aren’t reflected, which is why we can see black.
One possibility for dyeing our products is to use a black dye, without carbon black, as a special oil-based dye is added in its place.

As the majority of innovative, green solutions, it’s slightly more expensive. However, we can expect that its cost will be reduced once it gets more popular.
At this point, we need to emphasize that as many as a dozen or so interrelated companies take part in the recycling process.
If sorting plants use scanners for carbon-free black, if recyclers process black waste, if eventually dark regranulate is in demand, then packaging manufacturers, feeling the pressure, will change the dye. It’s a circle which needs to be harmoniously closed for the benefit of the planet.
If, however, recycling stations in the region for which the product is intended are equipped with Black Sensor, let them work!
Choose a product without a carbon dye!

Black carbon free