Welsh recycling technology named among TIME magazine’s best inventions

Mark Mansfield

A Welsh company’s invisible packaging tags have been named among TIME magazine’s Best Inventions of 2026.

Deeside-based Polytag developed the technology to help businesses track what happens to their packaging after consumers put it in the recycling bin.

The company, which describes itself as “proudly Welsh”, says its detection equipment is installed at 14 UK recycling sites, with its technology used by retailers including Ocado, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer.

Its tags are printed directly onto packaging and are invisible to the naked eye. Specialist equipment detects them using ultraviolet light, recording which tagged products pass through a recycling centre and when.

Polytag says independent third-party testing at operational recycling centres recorded a 100% detection rate for its tags.

Alice Rackley, chief executive of Polytag, said: “Being recognised by TIME is a huge achievement for Polytag, but it is also recognition of what can happen when businesses are willing to back new technology and put it to work in the real world.”

The company was founded in 2018 by Phil Sutton, a chartered scientist with 25 years’ experience in recycling and civil engineering, to develop the system he invented.

Its detection network now covers sites handling more than 40% of the UK’s kerbside-collected plastic recycling, according to the company. Packaging must carry one of its tags and reach a site equipped to read it to be recorded.

The tags are incorporated into the packaging artwork, allowing items to enter household recycling collections in the usual way. Detection units read them as they pass along processing lines.

The resulting data could help manufacturers improve packaging designs and measure how much is recovered, by comparing the amount they put on the market with the amount subsequently detected at recycling centres.

Detection records one stage of that journey, rather than establishing that an item has been turned into a new product.

Ms Rackley said: “Working with retailers and brands like Kraft Heinz, Ocado and Waitrose is helping us demonstrate how recycling infrastructure can become a source of valuable packaging data.”

Polytag’s Ecotrace programme, launched in 2025, brings together retailers, manufacturers and recycling operators to collect this information. Its partners include waste management company Biffa.

Ms Rackley added: “Technology such as Polytag’s Ecotrace Programme can make packaging lifecycle traceability the norm, rather than the exception, across the recycling system.”

Digital deposit trials

The company’s earlier work included digital deposit return trials in Conwy and Greasby in 2021, followed by a nationwide trial with Ocado in 2023. These schemes use digital codes to record packaging returns and allow consumers to claim a reward.

Polytag received the RECOUP award for innovation in equipment or technology in 2024 and began working with sorting equipment manufacturer Pellenc ST in 2025.

Its next phase of development focuses on expanding ultraviolet detection and sorting technology across the UK and Europe.