Mitigating the impact of sleeve labels on PET bottle recycling

To combat the difficulties full wrap shrink sleeve labels can cause when recycling PET bottles, the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR) has released the Final Report of the Sleeve Label Working Group, which outlines recommendations for mitigating the impact of sleeve labels.

“Unfortunately, these labels serve as a great marketing tool, but they essentially render the container non-recyclable,” said Byron Geiger, president of Custom Polymers PET and chairman of the APR Technical Programs.

“Sorting technology was unable to identify the resin type of the container if it had a full wrap label, thereby not separating it out appropriately, resulting in a contaminated stream of material. It was a significant problem.”

Key recommendations of the report include:

• Employ sleeve labels that will float in water and separate from PET flakes in a sink/float material separation step.
• Employ printed labels where the label inks do not stain PET flakes in the wash/rinse step.
• Use APR’s Critical Guidance Document for Shrink Labels for PET Bottles as a comprehensive laboratory test program to assess the impact of a label on recycling PET bottles.
• Where possible, use a sleeve label that leaves at least 20% of the PET bottle surface area exposed. This will allow the most accurate auto-sortation by the broadest range of installed colour sorters.

John Standish, technical director of APR, says several label manufacturers have worked with the APR to create label stock that meets APR guidelines for removal of labels in the wash system, which can reduce the problem.

“While we have a ways to go, the market is responding and working with APR to create guidelines that provide for the continued use of a full wrap label that meets the needs of the recycler. As the market evolves, we are hopeful more and more companies adopt this new label innovation for use with their products,” Standish said.

“Although this is one small step in addressing a much larger label problem with containers, the efforts to date give me optimism that the label manufacturers, brand owners and recyclers are up to the challenge. At the end of the day, all parties want to see more of their material recycled.”

A full copy of the report is available here.