Aeroplas have long believed that their plant pot range should be included with kerbside collections. While 76% of Local Authorities collect pots, tubs and trays, there are only a handful who collect plant pots.
To help move this forward, Aeroplas have worked with numerous raw material suppliers to provide a range of colours which are Carbon free, as Carbon Black pigment absorbs Infra-Red from detection systems, hindering recycling.
As a long-standing member of RECOUP, Aeroplas provided the plastic recycling charity with samples of plant pots manufactured from 100% reprocessed carbon free PP, for testing on NIR detection systems.
Tests were arranged at the high tech TOMRA testing centre in December 2017. The samples comprised of 8 different colours, including a carbon free black. The samples were 100% correctly identified as Polypropylene.
RECOUP CEO Stuart Foster stated, “This is a valuable fraction of plastics and I see no reason why it shouldn’t be included in household recyclables collections subject to meeting usual good practice collection requirements, namely being clean and empty.”
Aeroplas Sales Manager Alex Everett stated “We have been working very hard to find materials which will allow us to offer packaging in a closed loop system of recycling, pots which would normally end up in landfill can now be successfully sorted and recycled”.
WRAP’s Plastic Specialist Bernard Chase said -“Designing plastic packaging in a way that enables it to be easily collected in the household, easily sorted by Polymer type and easily recycled into new products at end of life is a fundamental principle of a truly circular approach to resource efficiency. WRAP is therefore delighted to be working in collaboration with RECOUP and Aeroplas to achieve such a highly desirable outcome for plastic plant pots."
More info:
