MAS-B
Bottle Sorter
Sorts whole post-consumer bottles by polymer, color and bottle class before shredding — protecting flake quality downstream.
Material guide
Plastics Recycling Sorting
For whole-bottle streams and prepared flakes — PET, HDPE, PP, PE, PS, ABS, PC and PMMA — where visible color, opacity, polymer type and contamination must be defined before a sorter is chosen. This guide frames the material so MAS-B, MAS-C, MAS-P and MAS-P Pro can be matched to the real stream.
Find your sorter
Four MAS directions — jump straight to a product.
This material guide maps onto four product families. Pick the one that matches your input form, or read on to confirm it with samples.
MAS-C
Plastic Color Sorter
Precision flake color sorting for PET and rigid plastics — recovers clear, light-blue and green fractions and removes off-color, opaque and black pieces.
MAS-P
PET Material Sorter
Removes PVC, PP, PE and other non-PET contaminants from PET flake streams to deliver high-purity PET before color sorting.
MAS-P Pro
Polymer Sorter
Material recognition with multi-spectral analysis separates visually similar rigid flakes — PP, PE, ABS, PS, PC and PMMA — with minimal loss.
Material forms
Four plastic material forms, four sorting decisions.
A plastic project should not start from a machine name. Separate whole bottles from prepared flakes, then decide whether the boundary is color, polymer type, or both.
Before size reduction · MAS-B
Whole bottle streams
Post-consumer bottles arrive mixed by polymer, color, label condition and deformation. Sorting these before shredding protects flake quality downstream.
- Beverage and water bottles
- Daily-chemical and oil bottles
- PET vs non-PET direction
- Labels, caps and compression
After preparation · MAS-C
Color flake streams
Washed, dried flakes are graded by visible color and opacity. Clear, light-blue and green fractions are separated from off-color, opaque and black pieces.
- Clear and color flakes
- Opaque or black pieces
- Rigid fragments
- Before pelletizing
Material recovery · MAS-P
PET flake streams
When visible color alone cannot define quality, PET flakes are purified by removing selected non-PET polymers — PVC, PP, PE and others.
- PET vs non-PET
- PVC / PP / PE removal
- High-purity PET target
- Before color sorting
Difficult polymers · MAS-P Pro
Mixed rigid polymer streams
PP, PE, PS, ABS, PC and PMMA can look identical after washing, especially in white, milky or transparent feed. Material recognition combined with color separates them.
- PP / PE polyolefins
- ABS / PS engineering plastics
- PC / PMMA transparent rigid
- Rigid flakes and regrind, 2–20 mm
Sample explorer
See the feed, accepted product and reject classes.
Switch between material families on the left tabs, then click any class to swap the sample on the left — feed, accepted product, recovered fractions and reject classes from real MAS sorting examples.
Recovering a clean bottle stream from mixed intake, decided before shredding.
Mixed feed
Incoming whole bottles — PET mixed with non-PET, labeled, capped and compressed examples.
Accepted and reject classes are always confirmed on your representative samples before a configuration is quoted.
Reject and contaminant classes
What the recipe is asked to remove.
These classes are defined during sample review. The mix of off-color, off-polymer and foreign material is what makes one plastic stream different from another.
Off-color pieces
Fragments outside the accepted color and transparency range — yellowed, amber or mixed-tone pieces that break a clear or light-blue target.
Opaque and black fragments
Opaque, milky and carbon-black pieces that reduce clarity. Carbon-black also absorbs the NIR signal and needs a visible-light or sample-led approach.
Non-PET polymers
PVC, PP, PE, PS, PA, ABS-FR, PMMA, PC/alloy and similar polymers that contaminate a PET stream and must be removed for high-purity recovery.
Labels, caps and films
Label fragments, ring caps, sleeves and film pieces that change visible appearance and the practical sorting boundary.
Visible contaminants
Dirt, metal fragments, paper, wood and other non-plastic foreign material introduced through collection and handling.
Look-alike borderlines
Transparent, light-blue, milky and dirty pieces that look similar but require different accept/reject decisions — the reason borderline samples matter.
Sample-led from the start
Send a representative plastic stream before choosing a sorter.
Accepted, rejected and borderline examples turn this material guide into a real configuration direction across MAS-B, MAS-C, MAS-P and MAS-P Pro.
Match a sorter
From material form to MAS direction.
Match the input form and accept/reject decision to a product direction — avoid choosing by plastic name alone.
Processing needInspection focusProduct directionWhen to use it
Whole-bottle class sorting before shreddingBottle color, label state, shape and material directionMAS-B Bottle SorterUse before shredding — not for flakes.
Visible color cleanup in flakesColor, opacity, black pieces and visible appearanceMAS-C Plastic Color SorterWhen color, not polymer, is the decision.
PET flake purificationPET vs selected non-PET material responseMAS-P PET Material SorterBring representative non-PET reject samples.
Difficult mixed-polymer separationCombined material recognition and color decisionsMAS-P Pro Polymer SorterWhen material and color must combine.
Recommended technologies
The inspection layers a plastic stream may need.
Not every machine uses every layer. The combination is selected for the material, the reject classes and the line.
Visible-light inspection
- What it observes
- Color, transparency, opacity and visible surface appearance of bottles and flakes.
- What it cannot confirm
- Cannot confirm polymer type on its own — a color-correct piece can still be the wrong material.
- Why material testing is required
- Color boundaries shift with lighting, flake size, moisture and contamination, so the recipe is set on real samples.
AI-assisted recognition
- What it observes
- Complex, overlapping appearance classes that are hard to express as a single color rule.
- What it cannot confirm
- Decisions remain operator-validated; it does not autonomously guarantee quality.
- Why material testing is required
- Defect and accept classes must be built from the customer's own accepted, rejected and borderline examples.
NIR material recognition
- What it observes
- Polymer signature by near-infrared response — separating PET, PVC, PP, PE, PS, ABS, PC and others.
- What it cannot confirm
- Cannot reliably read black or carbon-black plastics, which absorb the signal.
- Why material testing is required
- Accuracy depends on validated spectral libraries, clean dry flow and periodic calibration confirmed by testing.
Lighting and ejector control
- What it observes
- Recipe timing windows and reject actuation tuned to particle position and flow.
- What it cannot confirm
- Reject behavior depends on air supply, material speed and stream spread.
- Why material testing is required
- Ejection timing is documented per material test rather than copied across unrelated streams.
Buyer questions
Plastic recycling sorting FAQ.
Can one machine handle bottles, color flakes, PET purification and mixed polymers?
No. The product direction is chosen by input form and target decision. Whole bottles (MAS-B), color flakes (MAS-C), PET material sorting (MAS-P) and difficult mixed polymers (MAS-P Pro) have different handling and inspection requirements.
Is MAS-B used for PET flakes?
No. MAS-B is framed for whole-bottle sorting before size reduction. Flake projects should be reviewed under MAS-C, MAS-P or MAS-P Pro.
Can MAS-C identify polymer type?
MAS-C is positioned around visible color and appearance sorting. Polymer identification and material separation should be reviewed under MAS-P or MAS-P Pro, where the selected configuration supports it.
When is MAS-P Pro the right direction instead of MAS-P?
MAS-P targets PET purification by removing selected non-PET. MAS-P Pro is for streams where several rigid polymers (PP, PE, PS, ABS, PC, PMMA) look alike and material plus color must be decided together.
Can black or carbon-black plastics be sorted by NIR?
NIR cannot reliably read carbon-black plastics because they absorb the signal. Those streams are reviewed with visible-light and sample-led approaches, and the result is confirmed by testing.
Why do I need accept, reject and borderline samples?
Transparent, light-blue, milky and dirty pieces can look similar while needing different decisions. Representative accepted, rejected and borderline examples are what define a stable recipe boundary.
Can these pages guarantee purity, throughput or recovery?
No. Those values are only discussed after sample testing, selected configuration and line context are confirmed. Public pages avoid unverified performance claims.
AI visual preview
Preview plastic sorting online
Upload plastic images and see an indicative accept/reject visualization before committing to a physical test.
Open AI previewReal material test
Confirm the direction on your own stream
A representative sample test defines the MAS direction, recipe boundary and reject classes for your line.
Request a material test