APR addresses full-body PET sleeves

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

The Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR) has released a new guidance document to help processors of post-consumer plastic address the growing issue of full-body sleeve labels on PET bottles.

"Sleeve Label Substrate for PET Bottles Critical Guidance Document" seeks to address several key design issues that affect the removal of sleeve labels in the recycling process. Additionally, it seeks to quantify the effects of label residue on PET bottle recycling. The report is meant to help packaging decision-makers select label substrates and materials that are more compatible with PET bottle recycling than some currently offered.

In an effort to reduce testing cost and increase protocol usage, the new guidelines streamline the testing for full-body labels on PET bottles, omit some tests as irrelevant, while expanding on other subjects in the well-established "PET Bottle Critical Guidance Document."

"We see a tremendous amount of concern regarding the presence of full sleeve labels on PET bottles and the impact of the labels on the ability of bottles with such labels to be reclaimed using existing recycling technology," said APR president Steve Alexander, in a prepared statement. "There are some statements that reclaimers are able to process PET bottles with shrink sleeve labels without problems. Not exactly."

According to Alexander, the vast majority of PET reclaimers report that the labels are a serious problem for recycling. Label density, according to Alexander, is one characteristic that testing has demonstrated can lead to removing label contamination from the recycling process. Specifically, if labels sink in water after hot washing, they are less likely to be separated from the PET, causing serious problems for the recycling process.

"We are optimistic that this enhanced protocol provides packaging designers the clear guidance to mitigate this contamination problem," said Alexander in the statement.

The guidelines are also intended to address some key issues, including quantitative measurement of the tendency of the label material residue to clump.

"The problem starts at the local municipal sorting center, the MRF. The automatic sorting machines often cannot see through the labels to correctly identify the PET resin," said Dave Cornell, APR's technical director, in a statement. "This means a loss of revenue to the local collection system and loss of raw material to the reclaiming community. PET recyclers face added problems because many companies with modern pre-wash systems find the labels do not readily come off the PET bottles."

The new guidance document is based, in part, on a comprehensive examination of the impacts of label substrate choices as investigated by Plastic Forming Enterprises under contract to APR.

APR's critical guidance documents are part of its larger Champions for Change program in which the association works with other industries to achieve higher quality and more economical recyclate.

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