What is this candy wrapper made of? Solely plastic or mixed with something else?

Question

I am an avid recycler - whenever I get the chance to recycle, I do it.

The only problem is, I can't mix materials when recycling.

I want to recycle the following:

It's wrapping for candy - in this case Toblerone.

The outer layer looks like plastic, but the inner layer looks like aluminum (or maybe some other material).

Is this material solely plastic or is it mixed with something else?

Answer 1

As with most candy wrappers, it's a combination of plastic and aluminium also known as metallised plastic or metallised film. The material is hard to recycle because it's difficult to separate the two materials.

There are a few recyclers that accept this material (e.g.TerraCycle in the US and the UK or the Recycle program in Australia) but not many do. It's best to check with your local recycling company what to do with it, but chances are it will be incinerated or dumped on a landfill.

There is more information on the recycling issues of candy wrappers in this Earth911.com webpage

Answer 2

I had to look this up. The thickness of decorative aluminum films is less than 1000 angstroms ( that is the thickness of a mirror coating , and decorative coating is thinner). In inches, that is LESS THAN 0.000004 inches. So any consideration of aluminum in recycle is nonsense.

Answer 3

I can confirm this goes in mixed waste in many parts of the world, because plastic and aluminum in it are difficult to separate in a recycling process. I made some research on this for my app using AI to classify objects with your camera for waste sorting, you find it here if you wanna try it https://apps.apple.com/us/app/waste-classifier/id1501226693!