Contamination is any unwanted material in a recycling stream. It includes food residue, dirt, moisture, paper labels, adhesives, metals and, very often, the wrong type of plastic mixed in with the target polymer.
Contamination is the main reason recycled plastic loses quality. Even small amounts of PVC or PET in a polyethylene stream cause black specks, gels and odour, and organic residue degrades the melt. It is controlled at every stage: segregation at source, sortation, hot washing, density separation and fine melt filtration during extrusion. Cleaner input gives recyclate that can go into higher-value products.
