C/PAP 81
The pack is mostly paper or board with a plastic layer that cannot be separated by hand. The decision defines a composite as packaging 'made up of different materials, and which cannot be separated by hand', marked C plus the main material, so paper-led composites read C/PAP.
- Material
- Paper and board/plastic
- Code
- C/PAP 81
- Family
- Composites
- Defined by
- Commission Decision 97/129/EC
Which bin, usually
Usually not the paper-and-card bin: the plastic layer has to be stripped off at a specialist mill. Where drinks cartons and cups are collected they usually have their own route, a carton bank, a cup return point or the mixed packaging bin; elsewhere they go in general waste.
Whether this goes in your recycling depends on your local collection; check your council or municipality's sorting guide.
The material
Paper and fibreboard/plastic: board or paper with a plastic layer bonded to it.
Where you see it
Plastic-lined paper cups, chilled juice and milk cartons without a foil layer, plastic-coated paper plates and some frozen-food cartons.
What it does not mean
C/PAP 81 is not paper; putting it with plain paper and card can spoil a paper load where cartons are not accepted.
A composite code says the layers cannot be pulled apart by hand. It does not say that anyone near you separates them, and it does not mean the pack belongs with the material named after C/: C/PAP is not plain paper.
Annex VII also numbers 80 (Paper and fibreboard/miscellaneous metals), 83 (Paper and fibreboard/tinplate), 85 (Paper and fibreboard/plastic/aluminium/tinplate), 90 (Plastic/aluminium), 91 (Plastic/tinplate), 92 (Plastic/miscellaneous metals), 95 (Glass/plastic), 96 (Glass/aluminium), 97 (Glass/tinplate), 98 (Glass/miscellaneous metals).
Other ways it is printed
- C/PAP under an 81 in a triangle of arrows
- C/PAP 81, C/PAP81, CPAP 81 or 81 C/PAP in plain text
Other composites codes
Sources
- Commission Decision 97/129/EC of 28 January 1997 establishing the identification system for packaging materials (OJ L 50, 20.2.1997), as adopted — UK National Archives copy (Annex VII: Paper and fibreboard/plastic, 81; Article 2 definition of composite) — checked 2026-09-23
Written in our own words from these public texts and checked on the date shown. ASTM D7611 and ISO 14021 are sold by their publishers; only their public catalogue text is used here.