Recycled plastics to play a key role in combatting pollution


We are proud pioneers in sustainable innovation and polymer technology, and have been leading the way in cutting edge compounding and recycling capabilities since 1965. With this insight and perspective, we know all about the key role that recycled plastics have to play in combatting pollution for a more sustainable future, so we were delighted to see this excellent article from Plastic Recyclers Europe.

We’re proud to provide our customers with environmentally responsible options and solutions by recycling most plastics, and producing quality-assured, high performance polymer compounds for use in a variety of applications.
 
You can read more about our unrivalled expertise and state-of-the-art recycling and compounding capabilities right here on our website or, if you have particular requirements that we may be able to help you with, talk to our friendly team today on 01507 604941

Colour Tone Masterbatch wins Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation 2022!

We’re proud and delighted to share the news that Colour Tone Masterbatch Ltd, part of the Luxus Group, has been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation 2022. Find out more here.

The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious awards for UK businesses, recognising and celebrating business excellence across the UK. Colour Tone has achieved this award through the development and implementation of our patented Near infrared (NIR) detectable black colourants, which enable the automatic sorting and therefore recycling of black post-consumer mixed plastics. To date it is estimated that this technology has diverted over 10,000 tonnes of plastic from landfill.
 
Simon Atterby, General Manager at Colour Tone Masterbatch ltd, said:
“We are incredibly proud to have received this prestigious award, which is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the whole team. The management of plastics is, without doubt, one of the greatest challenges we all face as we try to build a cleaner, greener future for the generations to come.”
 
Black plastic is mistakenly perceived by many consumers as a particular problem, due to it being regarded as single use and impossible to recycle. In fact, the polymer itself is perfectly recyclable, however, when coloured in a traditional way, it cannot be recognised by the near infra-red sorting equipment in post-consumer sorting facilities and thus is diverted to landfill. Colour Tone recognised this and, through an innovative approach, developed and patented a product, which allows brand owners to continue to colour as they wish (including black) but via a colouring technology that is optimised for post-consumer sorting, therefore allowing the product to be identified and thereby diverted from landfill and recycled; a sustainable solution for both black plastics and other products which would otherwise not have been sorted.
 
Tony Gaukroger, is one of the original founders of Colour Tone and creators of the NIR product, he said:
 
“We recognised that a fundamental part of tackling the challenge was developing technology that enabled the effective recycling of black plastic, so we applied our years of experience and insight and invested significant time and resources into making it happen. We look forward to continuing to play our part in driving innovation and applying our specialist knowledge to build a cleaner, brighter future for our industry.”
 
Colour Tone’s expertise in this area means that we can offer consultation to customers and help them to adopt more sustainable packaging solutions with reduced carbon footprint, whilst maintaining a competitive price.
 
If you would like to find out more about this achievement, or any other aspect of Colour Tone, including career opportunities, please visit: www.colourtonemasterbatch.co.uk.

Odour Accelerator project: Developing and up-scaling odour-extracting technology for recycled polymers made from post-consumer waste

Of the UK’s 260,000 tonnes of post-consumer polypropylene waste, under 1% is recycled into high quality products (e.g. automotive applications). One of the main reasons for this is the fact that polymers retain odours from their previous applications (e.g. containers for food, sauces, detergents), which deems them unviable for use in the production of high value products.  

The Odour Accelerator project aims to upscale validated prototypes of processing technology to provide a cost-effective method for identifying odour and deodourising recycled polymers, which can then be implemented during the manufacture of higher value products. The technological concept was developed through a previous project funded by Innovate UK, which we are now working to upscale from our Laboratory prototype to our Compounding facility to allow full scale production of deodourised recycled polymer compounds.   

Project Outcomes  
• We’re delighted to say that we have installed a state-of-the-art, modified laboratory-scale extrusion line with vast flexibility of machine configuration for development of the process to be upscaled onto the larger production extrusion lines. 

• The project consortium has also designed and built bespoke processing technology, which has been validated through operational testing and analysis.   
 
• Laboratory trials for experimentation on the deodourising prototypes and their effectiveness have been carried out with very promising results, showing clear evidence of a reduction in odour causing VOC’s.  

Further scientific analysis of odours removed, and human sensory testing have been used to confirm the effectiveness of the process. 

Odour perception and removal is one of the key challenges in the arena of utilising recycled plastics, so we are committed to playing our part in finding a viable, long-term solution to allow higher applications to use recycled plastic rather than virgin polymer. 

Our sincere thanks to our funding body, Innovate UK and to our project partners, the University of Lincoln, Matrix Moulding Systems and IPL Global.