Ban on black plastic in supermarkets by Christmas

Did you know that black plastic can't be recycled?

Tens of thousands of tonnes of the stuff ends up in landfill each year, but the good news is now four major supermarkets are going to ban it from their shelves.

Sainsbury's, Tesco, Waitrose and Asda will stop using black plastic in their products by the end of the year.

Morrison's already announced a ban on the material last week.

Why is black plastic so hard to recycle?

Basically, the stuff gets its colour from being dyed with carbon black pigments.

Recycling plant sensors can't identify and sort black plastic, so most of it goes to landfill and our oceans. Which really sucks!

It's used a lot in shops mainly because it's cheap and can be produced using low value multi-coloured waste plastic.

We all know plastic use has gone up massively, in 1950, we were consuming around five million tonnes of plastic.

In 2014, that figure had shot up to 311 million.

And the 2015 Plastic Europe Report predicts that that figure is set to double in the next 20 years.

Let us know what you think about the ban on black plastic in the comments below!