Winners

Colour Tone Masterbatch is delighted to have won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation, for its development of a colouring technology which has, to date, diverted over 10,000 tonnes of plastic from landfill. The company achieved this through the development and commercialisation of patented Near Infra-Red (NIR) detectable colourants, which enable the automatic sorting and therefore recycling of post-consumer mixed plastics.

Colour Tone Masterbatch Ltd, part of the dynamic Luxus group, is an innovative manufacturer of colour concentrates [masterbatches] for use in thermoplastics. It is a pioneering supplier, addressing major industry challenges and developing novel solutions to overcome them. These include Vynacol, the patented polymer specific masterbatch for PVCu, Cool Plastics to reduce the environmental warming effect on outdoor products and their range of NIR detectable masterbatches, which can be automatically sorted from post-consumer waste.

There is a common misconception by many consumers that black plastics are unrecyclable, but all thermoplastics are recyclable when separated into their individual polymer type. The use of NIR spectroscopy is a highly efficient method of sorting mixed plastic waste into polymer types and is a technology already adopted by plastic waste sorting centres. The main issue with this process is that if the plastic is coloured with pigments that absorb light in the NIR spectrum, the automatic sorter is unable to identify the polymer, resulting in its diversion to landfill; even when it is perfectly recyclable. Utilisation of Colour Tone’s NIR optimised colourant technology solves this challenge and enables the consistent sorting of material for recycling.

Simon Atterby, General Manager at Colour Tone, says: “We are incredibly honoured to have been recognised via this prestigious award. The management of plastic at end of life is a significant global challenge and one which we are proud to be developing sustainable solutions for.”

Colour Tone also offers a consultancy service to customers wishing to adopt more sustainable packaging solutions with a reduced carbon footprint and an inbuilt design for end of life.