.jpg)
CCL Industries Inc. today announced plans for a strategic new capacity investment at its Innovia Films extrusion site in Plock, Poland. A new six-metre multi-layer co-extrusion line will be installed to produce EcoFloat shrink sleeve material.
This hybrid polyolefin film facilitates easy separation of labels from PET bottles and other types of plastic containers in the recycling process with the aim of enabling bottle-to-bottle circularity, an important goal for global food and beverage brand owners. The capacity will come online in early 2022 with most of the capital deployed in 2021.
“CCL developed a floatable polyolefin shrink film to meet the new market demands and to help brand owners reach their sustainability and recycling targets set by the EU. We see this as the sustainable decoration solution of the future – for a whole range of packaging in the beverage, dairy, home care and other industries,” says Guenther Birkner, president of Innovia and CCL’s food and beverage business.
“This is why we have decided to invest in new capacities in Europe to be in an ideal position to supply the growing demand we expect in the future.”
Alongside the investment into extrusion, CCL has also secured a raw material supply agreement with its partner Polyplastics, a global supplier of cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) under the TOPAS brand.
Birkner concludes: “Our investment is part of our commitment to boost plastic recycling and take steps towards a circular economy as stated when we signed the Global Commitment of the New Plastics Economy led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation earlier this year. In the future, the EU will set a target for the recycling rate in municipal waste.
“Reaching these will not be feasible without investing in new technologies for packaging materials that support ‘Design for Recycling’. As a floatable, low-density polyolefin film, EcoFloat fulfills the requirements for sleeves as defined in packaging design guidelines.”
