Under the wave of recyclable design, small labels make big articles

As the issue of plastic pollution becomes a topic of concern, more and more initiatives have been put into action to solve the problem, including improving recycling methods and increasing recycling efficiency. However, the strategies of recycling companies simply downstream in the plastics value chain are not enough to have a lasting impact.

For beverage packaging, sustainability is all about parts of the packaging being recycled back into the market, and to achieve this, beverage packaging needs to be recyclable and recyclable, one of the most important of which is the label.

Labels that can be recycled and recycled

Although the label is lightweight, it is very easy to become a source of contamination in the recycling process of beverage packaging.

In the process of compiling the "PET/HDPE Container Packaging Product Recyclable Design Guide", the Plastic Recycling Branch of China Synthetic Resin Association (CPRRA) found that poorly designed labels will leave ink adhesives that are difficult to remove, and PVC labels are difficult to sort.

A well-known brand of water bottle, the label is pasted with self-adhesive, de-labeling, cleaning, friction, etc., it is difficult to separate from the bottle, the residual self-adhesive and label paper sticking on the bottle sheet, the residual gum and label affect the subsequent use, seriously affecting the quality and value of blue and white tablets and blue tablets. (Selected for the 2021-2022 "Rotten Apple Award" of Waste Plastic New Observation)

The Design Guidelines for Recyclable Products in PET/HDPE Containers and Packaging specifies the impact of labels on product recycling categories, providing a basis for how to design labels to make containers better recyclable. In the guide, paper labels with non-washable adhesives and paper labels with washable adhesives are recyclable designs that need to be improved. The following figure shows the impact of labels on recycling categories in the PET Recyclable Design Guide:

a.Labels and inks are essential for packaging products and are used to promote product information. Label film is generally attached to the package by an adhesive or fixed to the package by a physical shrink sleeve. They make up a small proportion of the entire package and are designed with the main consideration for how to separate from PET in a simple and economical way to recycle without contaminating the PET recycling stream. In the domestic waste PET packaging collection system, some sorting equipment collects and packs unlabeled PET packaging into net (bottle) bricks, and other sorting equipment prepares wool (bottle) bricks without de-labeling; After the recycler purchases the wool (bottle) brick, it will also carry out a certain de-labeling operation before the cleaning process to reduce the contamination of the label to the back-end PET bottle flakes, so the adhesive and label fixing form will also affect the PET recycling and recycling.

b.Adhesives and labels cannot be completely separated from the bottle or flake during the PET bottle or flake cleaning process.

c.Adhesives and labels can be completely separated from the bottle or flake during the cleaning of the PET bottle or flake.

A new direction in label design

Label suppliers are following the sustainability trend by developing and offering label products that help beverage brands achieve their sustainability goals.

UPM launches a new label that can be cleanly separated from recycled packaging, allowing PET and HDPE flakes to be recycled without contamination by the label material. They will be marketed on the market as UPM Lantai SmartCircle™ products.

Siegwerk has developed solvent-based washable inks for shrink sleeves of PET bottles. In this PET bottle with this washable ink label, the ink can rinse off the crystalline copolyester film during the recycling process, so that the clean label film can be recycled with the PET bottle flakes.

CCL Label's EcoFloat floatable polyolefin shrink sleeve launched in recent years. The label film adopts PE/PP substrate and has a lateral shrinkage capacity of more than 60%. Transparent and floatable, this polyolefin film helps to easily separate labels from PET bottles and other types of plastic containers during the recycling process for bottle-to-bottle cycling.

Garware Polyester Ltd. applies its ECO-REP PETG SHRINK SLEEVE TO ITS PET BOTTLES, HEAT SHRINK FILM USING WASHABLE HP Indigo ElectroInk ink, and printed with HP Indigo Press. After the ink is washed away, the crystallizable copolyester film can be recycled with PET.