"Thank you for your email with concerns and questions about black plastic.
Yes, it is true that at present black plastic cannot be recycled. The difficulty lies in the sorting facility methodology for sorting the various items of the Blue Box program. At present most recycling facilities use optical sorting technology for separating the various grades of plastic from other materials in the stream. Infrared laser light is shone over a section of the conveyor belt at the sorting facility. The various plastic materials reflect back this light to a reader. Depending on the type of plastic – it reflects back different wavelengths which are then monitored and this is used to sort the plastic. Bursts of high pressure air then move the various grades of plastic off the conveyor into the different grades of plastic – such as HDPE (#2), PET (#1) and all the other grades of plastic.
Because the conveyor belts are black – anything that is black that is on the belt cannot be "read" by the optical sorters and ends up in the residue stream.
Packaging design and choices made by manufacturers cannot be readily influenced at the municipal level but require changes to occur at the regional or national level. Thus at present the best you can do as an eco-minded consumer is to try to avoid buying items packaged in black plastic (as you mentioned) and possibly let your favourite vendors know of your concerns. Depending on their size and their supply chain (and ethics) they may be willing to make changes to their packaging.
Toronto monitors markets and technologies in efforts to make continual improvements to our waste diversion programs.
Thank you for your efforts in participating in our programs."
