Does EPR penalise colour in plastic?

E163 - Does EPR penalise colour in plastic?

Published: July 9, 2026

Duration: 7:45

Alice on Discord asked whether EPR actually takes pigment into account. The answer is yes, but not as much as you might think. Earlier versions of the assessment, placed much more emphasis on colour, whereas the final PackUK methodology only flags carbon black pigment as a sortation issue. Most other colour-related impacts now sit under the "application" stage, where certain colours can reduce the quality of recycled plastic rather than prevent it from being recycled. There are some material-specific quirks too, like coloured PET bottles being penalised while PET trays aren't, and, perhaps inevitably, there's still plenty of room...