UK recycling charity Recoup (Peterborough; www.recoup.org) and the British Plastics Federation (BPF, London / UK; www.bpf.co.uk) have launched updated guidance to help packaging designers create easy-to-recycle plastic packaging.

Based on industry expert advice, the 76-page "Recyclability by Design Guidance" outlines which combination of closures, seals, labels and materials should be used to ensure that plants can easily separate and recycle the various plastics. It also includes polymer-specific recyclability tables, which have been revised in this latest version after consulting sorting facilities and reprocessors.

Recoup said that while design guidelines have already been produced by a number of industry associations, its work collates together into one simple document commonly agreed best practice and to provide the business case for following the guidelines.

This is the seventh version of the guidance following its original release in 2006. It is available free of charge on both Recoup's and BPF's websites.