CCL Labels launches “world-first” closed-loop recycling solution for stretch sleeves

15 Feb 2021 --- CCL Labels is set to invest in unique recycling technology introducing “the first” closed-loop solution for plastic stretch sleeves on beverage bottles.

Dubbed EcoStretch: the Closed Loop Solution, the technology is the first of its kind, according to CCL Labels.

The company, which is the producer of WashOff Labels, says the new recycling machinery will be located at its site in Voelkermarkt, Austria, which it intends to develop into a hub for label recycling. 

Marika Knorr, head of sustainability and communications at CCL Labels, tells PackagingInsights about the technology’s importance and complexity. 

“This is a step towards making the label or sleeve or any other packaging ‘decoration’ circular. Although this part of the packaging might seem small at the beginning, the label consists of different parts like the face material, inks and sometimes adhesives.” 

“To ‘wash off’ these inks so that plastic base material can then be recycled without losing important properties has been a technological challenge, which has now been further developed so that it works,” she explains. 

Cutting carbon with labels 
CCL Labels has calculated huge savings in plastic and associated energy emissions will be achieved through its initial efforts – something the company hopes can expand in the future. 

CCL Labels’ EcoStretch: the Closed Loop Solution will save an estimated 178 tons of CO2 annually.“If a beverage customer purchases 250 tons of stretch sleeve materials annually and we replace 50 percent of that with our own post-consumer recycled materials, this adds up to a savings of 178 tons of carbon emissions per year. That almost equals 35 long-haul flights from Germany to Australia,” says Knorr. 

Last year, CCL Industries signed the Global Commitment of the New Plastics Economy, led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. 

CCL Labels also pledged that by 2025, all of its customers would be able to choose label products and solutions that “do not hinder the final package from being recyclable, reusable or compostable.”

The “wash off” challenge 
Producing technology that can effectively recycle stretch sleeves presented serious hurdles for the CCL Labels’ designers, says Knorr. 

“The challenges are to actually ‘wash off’ the inks in a way that does not create any other contamination.” 

“It also needs to recycle the plastic particles in a way that they then can be molten, pressed into new pellets and be fed back in the extrusion line without losing any of its valuable properties and quality. This is especially important for a thin extruded film.”

Knorr also stresses stretch sleeves as a decoration product are already a more sustainable choice compared to other forms of labeling. 

Stretch Sleeves are very thin, meaning they are material-efficient and don’t require any adhesives, she explains.

Getting ahead of regulation 
Earlier this year, CCL Labels introduced WashOff Labels to meet forthcoming German packaging regulations, which stipulate that packaging companies must increase glass recycling rates to 90 percent from 2022, up to ten percentage points from the 2019 mandate. 

To help companies separate bottles and labels more effectively, the company developed a solution that requires no wet-glue adhesive and no water to clean and maintain the change parts. 

By Louis Gore-Langton