CCL Label, a provider of specialty label and packaging solutions, is planning to offer a closed-loop recycling solution for stretch sleeves.
The recycling facility will be located at the Voelkermarkt site in Austria, which is a hub for the production of stretch and shrink sleeves mainly for the dairy, beverage, and home care industries.
CCL Label is pioneering a new technology that enables the post-consumer de-inking of the printed sleeves. The sleeves are removed from the bottle after the PET bottles are returned to the filling lines of the producers.
They are then shipped to the Voelkermarkt site, where – after the de-inking and cleaning – the sleeves are molten and shaped into pellets which feed back into the manufacturing process, thus creating a new sleeve in a closed loop.
Reinhard Streit, vice president and managing director at CCL Food & Beverage, comments: “There’s a world of opportunity to rethink and redesign the way we make products. This new investment is part of CCL Label’s long-term plan to support design for recycling with their labels and to contribute to a more circular economy.
“With more and more deposit schemes being introduced to increase the recycling rates, we expect the returnable bottle systems to expand.”
In addition to the closed-loop recycling solution for stretch sleeves, the company reports that the type of decoration it uses has a lower carbon footprint compared to other options, to begin with. In addition to being thin, Stretch Sleeve material is applied to containers without the use of adhesives or heat.
Furthermore, CCL Labels says that cost savings of up to 50% are possible compared to other technologies. Stretch Sleeves are often used in the beverage and dairy industry, but there are also tailor-made solutions for larger containers, such as canisters.
Last year CCL Industries signed the Global Commitment of the New Plastics Economy, which is led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. CCL Label has pledged that by 2025, all its customers will be able to choose label products and solutions that will not hinder the final package to be recyclable, reusable, or compostable.
