Consumables
AVERY DENNISON BOTTLE-TO-BOTTLE PORTFOLIO IMPROVES RECYCLABILITY OF PET CONTAINERS
Monday 17. September 2012 - Adhesive and film combination reduces waste from plastic packaging
Avery Dennison Corporation is featuring the Bottle-to-Bottle (B2B) Film portfolio at this year’s Labelexpo Americas. The portfolio is designed specifically for the PET recycling stream to conserve resources and reduce landfill waste.
Avery Dennison develops packaging and labeling materials that enable converters and manufacturers to produce compelling and sustainable packaging for their products, including PET(polyethylene terephthalate) containers. PET is a popular plastic package for food and non-food products because of its strength, thermo-stability and transparency.
“NAPCOR applauds Avery Dennison and its customers for addressing a critical impediment to the efficient recycling of PET containers,” said Mike Schedler, National Association for Pet Container Resources (NAPCOR) Director of Technology. “The popularity of pressure-sensitive labels makes it imperative that they be successfully removed as part of the standard PET reclamation process to increase their recyclability. We hope other label manufacturers and brand owners follow Avery Dennison’s lead.”
The bottle-to-bottle portfolio is built on clear or white BOPP film facestock anchored by SR3010, a switchable adhesive which adheres to a PET bottle until the cohesive bond is broken at the recycler. This allows the facestock and adhesive to cleanly separate from the PET flake to deliver pure PET flakes, conserve virgin PET resources and reduce landfill.
The film and adhesive are considerably less dense than the PET flakes, which are left over when the residue from the film and adhesive are removed from the container fragments This allows the PET flakes to sink to the bottom of the tank while the label flakes rise to the top. With the materials automatically separated, it’s easy for the label to be removed from the tank and permit the PET flakes to move on to the next step of being recycled. Manufacturers can use the recycled PET flakes to produce packaging films and shells. The B2B portfolio has been certified to work in the NAPCOR/APR protocols for PET recycling.
“This will help recyclers address the more than 2 billion PET containers that do not enter the recycling stream each year,” said Laura Clark, global beverage marketing director, Avery Dennison Label and Packaging Materials. “We are working with a number of the beverage industry leaders to meet their aggressive standards for PET upcycling. This portfolio leverages our film and adhesive expertise to deliver a certified portfolio that dramatically improves PET recyclability.”
Avery Dennison representatives will be available to discuss the B2B Portfolio and its benefits at the Avery Dennison Booth #119 in the exhibition hall.