Glass package transparency is key to ensuring proper sortation in a MRF, according to a recent study from glass recycling and packaging stakeholders. | Pornpawit/Shutterstock
A major recycled glass processor teamed up with a cosmetics giant to identify how cosmetics packaging is sorted in MRFs and which attributes are impeding greater recycling. Their findings offer suggestions for material design. Glass Nail Polish Bottles
Strategic Materials and Estée Lauder partnered on the four-year study , carried out from 2020 to 2024, with the aim of providing greater nuance to the question of what makes a glass package more recyclable.
“While most North America public information and instructions for recycling have suggested that glass, if amber, green or clear, could be recyclable, this tends to be more complex in the luxury cosmetics industry,” the companies wrote. In cosmetics, they added, “multiple decorations, colors and formats are used to achieve a unique packaging aesthetic, that at times, inadvertently inhibits recyclability.”
The study focused solely on residential curbside recycling of cosmetics packaging made from soda lime glass, the type used in all beverage containers recyclable in curbside programs. It looked at more than 250 samples of glass packages, ranging from white to black and with various design finish features like matte, gloss, metallic and pearlescent. Such packaging types are common in the cosmetic packages used by Estée Lauder brands, which include Aveda, Clinique, Tom Ford, the namesake Estée Lauder and many more.
The project put a handful of pieces of broken glass about an inch in size from each package through an optical sorting system at a Strategic facility and recorded the results. It also featured tests in a lab setting.
The study found glass opacity is a major design feature affecting recyclability. In tests on glass with less than 1% light transmission — very opaque — about two-thirds of the samples were sorted as ceramic, stone or porcelain contaminants, and only one-third correctly identified as glass. At 2% light transmission, 82% of the samples were identified as glass. At 3% and above, 100% of samples were properly sorted as glass.
With that in mind, the study advised that packaging be designed with light transmission of 5% or higher to ensure maximum likelihood of proper sorting.
Virtually all of the design best practices go back to ensuring that level of transparency in the glass material. Glass of all colors and thicknesses is technically not problematic in the recycling process, but it can create challenges when those attributes prevent proper optical identification by making the glass too opaque.
For example: “Amber glass containers with a thick bottom or walls make it difficult for light to penetrate during the color sorting process,” the study found. “As a result, the optical sorting machines mistake the thick amber glass for non-glass material and reject the material from the recycling process.”
The study advised designers to limit use of metallized coatings that, although they may not impede sortability, are a chemical contaminant that the glass processor will have to deal with. End market specifications only allow limited amounts of such contaminants, so the processor has to blend glass with those coatings with non-coated glass.
Besides prioritizing package opacity in design, Strategic and Estée Lauder advised packaging designers to conduct sortability tests, similar to those in their joint study, when using features like textured glass and various types of coatings. They also advised designers to gauge light transmission using proper equipment, and ideally to do those tests at a recycling facility.
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Average commodity prices rose slightly in the third quarter of the year due to national and regional trends, though the growth appears to be cooling off, according to the latest report from the Northeast Recycling Council.
Prices for most major curbside recyclables dropped this month, but a couple outliers were natural HDPE and aluminum beverage cans, both of which saw double-digit percentage increases in value. The national average price of post-consumer natural HDPE from curbside collection programs is now at an average 66.19 cents per pound, up 13% from 58.56 cents last month. One year ago, this grade was trading for 29.06 cents. But the national average price of color HDPE is down again this month, now at an average 5.44 cents per pound compared to 8 cents last month and 18.31 cents one year ago. The national average price of post-consumer PET beverage bottles and jars dropped this month, now averaging 15.41 cents per pound compared to 17.22 cents per pound this time last month. Regional contracts are now yielding 15-18 cents per pound. One year ago this grade was trading at an average 11.03 cents per pound. The national average price of post-consumer PP remains steady, now at 9.06 cents per pound, compared to 9.56 cents last month. PP was 4.94 cents one year ago. All major fiber grades dropped in value this month. The national average price for old corrugated containers, PS 11, dropped from $77 to an average $73 per ton. OCC averaged $80 per ton this time last year. Mixed paper, PS 54, dropped $4, from $45 to $41 per ton. This compares to $38 per ton this time last year. Sorted office papers, PS 37, remained steady month-over-month at $117 per ton, compared to an average $132 per ton one year ago. Sorted residential papers, PS 56, remain steady in the $63-per-ton range. This compares to $77 per ton one year ago. The national average price for sorted, baled aluminum cans is up, now trading at 86.88 cents per pound, up from 78.75 last month. It was 61 cents per pound this time last year. The price for sorted, baled steel cans is up, trading in the $174-per-ton range. Steel cans averaged $210 per ton one year ago. The national average price of Grade A film is unchanged at 18.13 cents per pound. It traded at 13.88 cents one year ago. Grade B film also remains steady at 7.63 cents. Grade C film is at a nominal 0.63 cents per pound. These prices are as reported on the Secondary Materials Pricing Index. This pricing represents what is being paid for post-consumer recyclable materials in a sorted, baled format, picked up at most major recycling centers. For a free trial to SMP’s Online Post-Consumer Pricing Index, visit the Recycling Markets website, recyclingmarkets.net. You can also contact Christina Boulanger-Bosley at [email protected] or call 330-956-8911.
AMP recently raised $91 million in a financing round and plans to use the funds to accelerate the deployment of its AMP ONE sortation system.
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