Berry's new black solution makes recycling possible

Berry has provided a more sustainable solution for the packaging of Norwegian ice cream producer Diplom-Is’s Royal brand by replacing the company’s previous carbon black colour containers with new non-carbon black versions. This has made it possible to recycle the ice cream containers.

Contrary to traditional carbon black, new non-carbon black plastic packaging is detectable by the Near Infra-Red (NIR) scanners used for waste sorting processes. This means that the containers can be identified for recycling purposes. Berry uses a special high-quality non-carbon black masterbatch with special pigments to improve NIR technology detection and sorting.

“We are always on the lookout for more sustainable and affordable packaging solutions for our products so when we got the opportunity to switch our premium ice cream brand Royal to non-carbon black containers, the choice was easy,” explained Anne-Lene Molland, communications manager at Diplom-Is.

“We are very satisfied with the result. The new black enables proper sorting of Royal ice cream containers at local recycling and sorting facilities, which can save significant amounts of virgin plastic material. We have been very thorough in our approach by successfully testing the non-carbon black containers at two local recycling plants in Norway, as well as at a sorting plant in Germany.”

Diplom-Is is one of the biggest ice cream producers and a household brand in Norway. Therefore, the shift to a non-carbon black container has caught the attention of the market.

“We get a lot of positive feedback and have raised awareness of the challenges with the colour black for packaging through articles and social media,” said Anne-Lene Molland. “We believe these initiatives may encourage others to switch to non-carbon black for packaging.”

The partnership between Diplom-Is and Berry Superfos is a long-lasting relationship, she continued:

“Our choice of Berry for packaging supplier is first of all a question of getting the right quality. Another advantage is their capability to follow up quickly and make any necessary improvements to the packaging; for example, to optimise the workflow in our production. We also give the Berry team a thumbs-up for their professionalism, reliability and for being easy to work with."

This article was originally published by Berry Global.