Deeside recycling tags make TIME’s 2026 inventions list
Deeside company Polytag’s UV Tag technology has been included in TIME’s Best Inventions of 2026. The magazine’s entry, published on 15 October, describes invisible marks printed onto packaging and read by optical scanners at recycling facilities.
Following packaging after the bin
The marks help connect packaging to information about its material, composition and origin. TIME says the resulting data can help manufacturers check sustainability claims and recycling facilities sort materials. Polytag offers both consumer-facing Smart QR Codes and Invisible UV Tags. The UV system is read by specialist equipment; it is a different part of the platform from a shopper scanning a QR code.
The Welsh company behind it
Polytag says it was founded in Deeside in 2018 to commercialise the system invented by Phil Sutton. Its company page identifies a network of 14 UK recycling sites and names Ocado, Waitrose and M&S among businesses using its technology. Those are company-reported deployment details.
What the recognition establishes
TIME’s entry confirms the invention’s selection. It does not supply an independent audit of every deployment or a national recycling-rate measure. Detecting marked packaging as it passes a scanner records that stage of the process; it should not be read as proof that every part of the material has become a new product.
Background and supporting figures
Where this sits
TIME describes invisible packaging marks read with optical scanners, linking packaging characteristics to detection and sortation information.
Company distinguishes consumer-scanned Smart QR Codes from equipment-read Invisible UV Tags. Do not conflate the two technologies.
Selection by TIME is editorial recognition; company network totals are not a national material-recovery statistic.