Avery Dennison launches rPET liners in four new constructions across Europe

04 Feb 2019 --- Adhesive manufacturer Avery Dennison’s recently launched portfolio of recycled PET (rPET) liners has been boosted by the introduction of four new labeling constructions, available across Europe. The new liner labels are made using 30 percent rPET and designed to separate easily from PET bottles, aiding the post-consumer recycling process.

Georg Müller-Hof, Vice President Marketing, Avery Dennison, believes that using post-consumer waste (PCW) to manufacture label liners represents a step change in sustainability.

“Avery Dennison is focused on real-world sustainability improvements, which ultimately means ‘closing the loop’ and using post-consumer waste to create new products. These four new labeling materials not only use a liner with more than 30 percent recycled PET bottle content, but they are also part of our CleanFlake and ClearCut portfolios, which offer important additional sustainability gains in their own right,” he says.

Avery Dennison's new liner label portfolio is designed to separate easily from the bottle.Three CleanFlake materials are now available on a thin rPET23 liner. The “switchable” CleanFlake adhesive is designed to separate cleanly from PET bottles during the recycling process so that contamination of PET flakes is avoided. This is an important factor in ensuring that recycled PET can be recycled rather than “downcycled.”

The fourth new material is the high clarity ClearCut PP50 TOP CLEAR-S7000-rPET23 construction. It is considerably thinner than today’s market reference (PP60 with PET30) and offers high-speed conversion and dispensing using the same thin rPET23 liner, the manufacturer notes.

The rPET liner has been designed to convert in the same way as a conventional PET liner, with no noticeable differences in performance.

“We are committed to managing waste across the value chain in line with our 2025 Sustainability Goals and to meet the needs of our customers. Moving forward, we look forward to introducing rPET liner in an expanded range of products, as well as offering products that contain recycled content and/or enable recycling of end-use packaging,” Müller-Hof adds.

Avery Dennison became the first pressure sensitive labeling material supplier to introduce liner made from recycled PET (rPET) commercially in Europe in October 2018.

“With a continued innovation focus on solutions that are responsibly sourced, use reduced amounts of material and are more easily recyclable we are pleased to be able to introduce a rPET liner to our portfolio – a liner that is not only easier to recycle, but itself is made of recycled materials,” said Jasper Zonnenberg, Global Director Films, Avery Dennison, at the time.

“As the availability of suitable rPET is currently limited we will initially have a limited supply of our rPET liner. However, we will soon be able to scale up production significantly and we aim to have rPET as an option across all of our filmic and paper constructions,” he added.Avery Dennison's CleanFlake label in use.

Zonnenberg notes that the introduction of PCW rPET liner requires careful management during liner production to ensure the stability and robustness that 100 percent virgin resin PET liner is known for.

“Conversion and application speeds are helping to drive the ongoing rise in demand for PET liners and we have been careful to retain those benefits, while also supporting converters and end users as they make the transition from glassine. These new rPET liners are another example of our determination to provide solutions where higher productivity goes hand in hand with improved sustainability, creating a win-win for both productivity and the planet,” he explained.

In September 2018, Avery Dennison and the Ocean Recovery Alliance, founders of Plasticity Forum, entered into a three-year agreement as part of the Plasticity Partner Program. Over the three year period, Avery Dennison and Plasticity aim to collaborate across the industry to discover, connect and facilitate solutions to create innovative prevention programs for plastic pollution.