{"id":174504,"date":"2026-03-16T07:23:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T06:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=174504"},"modified":"2026-03-10T14:20:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:20:38","slug":"european-bioplastics-pushes-for-nir-tech-in-biodegradable-plastic-recycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/european-bioplastics-pushes-for-nir-tech-in-biodegradable-plastic-recycling\/","title":{"rendered":"European Bioplastics pushes for NIR tech in biodegradable plastic recycling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Key takeaways<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>European Bioplastics emphasizes the recyclability of biodegradable plastics as part of the circular economy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>High-quality sorting systems, including NIR technology, are crucial for efficient recycling and maintaining material purity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Successful tests and research show that biodegradable plastics like PLA can be effectively sorted and recycled without contaminating other plastic streams.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>European Bioplastics stresses the need to recycle biodegradable plastics to strengthen circularity. In a position paper, the organization outlines how recycling can serve as an important end-of-life pathway for bioplastics when supported by near-infrared (NIR) sorting technology.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If not composted or used for marine applications, biodegradables can be collected in plastic collection streams, sorted, and materially recycled without adversely affecting the recycling of other plastic streams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;To realize a true circular economy, it is imperative to establish high-quality recycling systems that ensure the secondary raw materials produced can successfully replace virgin materials. Achieving this requires maintaining a clean and high-quality material stream, making efficient sorting a crucial first step towards high-quality recycling,&#8221; the paper states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>European Bioplastics presents evidence that biodegradable plastic polymers do not affect the recycling or recyclability of other plastic waste.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEfficient sorting of all plastics can be performed with existing NIR equipment at sorting and recycling facilities as long as the respective spectra libraries for those plastics are used,\u201d says European Bioplastics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPoor sorting leads to inefficient recycling, independent of the recycling stream and process. To obtain high-quality recycling outputs, constant improvement in sorting efficiency is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>NIR sorting of bioplastics<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>European Bioplastics highlights that existing sorting technologies, like NIR sorting, are key.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"802\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/03\/fece539a-e359-479e-b02b-49beefd012a2NIR-PLA-PET.webp\" alt=\"The NIR spectra of PLA and PET shows the differences in peak\" class=\"wp-image-174532\" style=\"width:731px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/03\/fece539a-e359-479e-b02b-49beefd012a2NIR-PLA-PET.webp 802w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/03\/fece539a-e359-479e-b02b-49beefd012a2NIR-PLA-PET-300x185.webp 300w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/03\/fece539a-e359-479e-b02b-49beefd012a2NIR-PLA-PET-150x93.webp 150w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/03\/fece539a-e359-479e-b02b-49beefd012a2NIR-PLA-PET-768x474.webp 768w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/03\/fece539a-e359-479e-b02b-49beefd012a2NIR-PLA-PET-400x247.webp 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 802px) 100vw, 802px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The NIR spectra of PLA and PET shows the differences in peaks \u00a9 European Bioplastics<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>As most biodegradable plastics are mainly polyesters, the NIR-spectra of those polymers (including their blends) are distinctly different from PE, PP, PS, and even PET,\u201d says the organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the concerns often raised is that biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) could contaminate PET streams, according to European Bioplastics. \u201cHowever, the NIR spectra for PLA and PET are clearly distinguishable in standard NIR equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>European Bioplastics points to the two successful dynamic sorting tests by TotalEnergies Corbion completed at a Tomra German testing center in August 2022.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe first test was with mixed plastic packaging waste, including PLA trays, using the Tomra NIR sorting machine to positively sort PLA out in order to determine if the trays are recognized and sorted correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn order to determine whether the PLA trays are falsely sorted to PET, a second test was carried out. In this case, the aim was sorting PET from a mix of packaging waste that included 30 PLA trays.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The industry association says the tests demonstrated the correct sorting of PLA trays in the appropriate stream, with minor and ordinary mechanical oversorting.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Sealive optic sorting tests<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Antoine Bourely, chief scientific officer and co-founder at the connected optic sorting company Pellenc ST, says the company has been testing the sortation of bioplastics within the European project Sealive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAll polymers tested have been perfectly separated from fossil-based plastics in the lab, and PLA has been well sorted in a Spanish materials recovery facility (MRF) operated by Urbaser. This sortation did not create any loss of other plastics from that MRF.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, lab tests have shown the ability to separate the bioplastics from each other in four main classes: PLA, PHA, PB+, and Cellulose Acetate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis opens the door to many end-of-life opportunities for bioplastics, including composting and recycling, and especially so, since most sorting lines in Europe already use a NIR system,\u201d says Bourely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key takeaways European Bioplastics stresses the need to recycle biodegradable plastics to strengthen circularity. In a position paper, the organization outlines how recycling can serve as an important end-of-life pathway for bioplastics when supported by near-infrared (NIR) sorting technology.&nbsp; If not composted or used for marine applications, biodegradables can be collected in plastic collection streams, [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":174532,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"The organization outlines how recycling can serve as an important end-of-life pathway for bioplastics when supported by near-infrared (NIR) sorting technology","footnotes":""},"categories":[17143],"tags":[11270,5847,10416,14007,11966,20929,10453,23249],"supplier":[435,3292,17780,19655],"class_list":["post-174504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recycling","tag-biodegradability","tag-bioplastics","tag-circulareconomy","tag-pet","tag-plastics","tag-polylacticacid","tag-recycling","tag-sortingtechnology","supplier-european-bioplastics-ev","supplier-pellenc-sa","supplier-tomra","supplier-totalenergies-corbion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174504"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174546,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174504\/revisions\/174546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174504"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=174504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}