Full-Wrap Shrink Labels: Their Impact on PET Bottle

Full-Wrap Shrink Labels: Their Impact on PET Bottle
Recycling and Sustainability
Background
The incidence of PET bo.les using full-­‐wrap shrink labels was first noted by NAPCOR in its 2007 bale composiEon study at levels around .65% by weight. At that Eme, reclaimers reported that the bo.les were contribuEng to increased residual contaminaEon in the recyclate produced. NAPCOR’s 2011 bale study showed an increase to 3% by weight of all bo.les collected in the USA, and to 3.5% of containers collected through curbside recycling. Canadian reclaimer data indicate that full-­‐wrap shrink labeled PET bo.les now make up 6% of the curbside recycling stream by weight. What was formerly a nuisance has now become a crisis... as reclaimers, parEcularly those focused on manufacturing RPET suitable for use in packaging applicaEons such as bo.les and thermoforms, have had to remove these full-­‐wrap label bo.les, either manually or by reprogramming autosort equipment. IniEally, most of these bo.les were simply thrown out, but as their volumes increase that is no longer a viable opEon. Currently, some full-­‐wrap label bo.les are being sold as “out-­‐
throws” at prices significantly below market; some are being blended into low-­‐value applicaEons; and many are simply being stockpiled as reclaimers look for a soluEon or a market. All of this has significant economic impact on the PET bo.le reclamaEon industry. If the PET recycling infrastructure is to remain sustainable, this issue can not be ignored; it needs to be addressed now. What is a Full-Wrap
Shrink Label?
A label that is heat shrunk snugly around a
significant portion of the entire bottle surface,
running contiguously, with no seam or other
break. These labels are becoming increasingly
popular with brand owners due to the
marketing opportunities they provide and
positive consumer response.
Fulll-wrap shrink labeled PET bottles piled up at reclamation facility
National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), PO Box 1327, Sonoma, CA 95476, 707/996-4207, www.napcor.com!
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Full-Wrap Shrink Labels: Their Impact on PET Bottle Recycling and Sustainability
The Issues and Impacts: The informaEon on the following three pages is intended to give the reader a working knowledge of the problem and the complexity of its impacts; it is not meant to be prescripEve or an evaluaEon of any parEcular labels other than in a generic sense.
Reclamation Process: PET bottle reclaimers are those
Intermediate Processing:
operations that purchase post consumer bottles and
number of Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs)
thermoforms, and sort and clean them to produce a clean
are investing in equipment that uses near
flake suitable for remanufacture. The flake is either sold or
infrared (NIR) technology to positively identify
used internally in the production of pellets, sheet, fiber or
PET containers, then uses compressed air to
strapping.
sort them from the other recyclables. Full-wrap
Reclaimers are the lynchpin of the industry: without them,
there is no true PET recycling. Full-wrap shrink labels pose
a variety of problems for reclaimers, none of which are
insignificant. Although all reclaimers employ slightly different
technologies, their concerns fall into three common areas
of processing and quality control.
An increasing
labels tend to blind these detection systems,
preventing them from identifying the PET,
resulting in either the loss of the container to the
waste stream, or necessitating additional
manual sortation. This added cost lengthens the
payback of these investments, many of which
are retrofits.
✦ Blinding of autosort devices as also experienced by
the MRFs during intermediate processing, forcing either
a reprogram of the software, or the addition of manual
the PET, potentially causing the contamination
sorters to remove the bottles.
impacts detailed on page 3.
✦ Difficulties in label separation. Reclaimers commonly
✦ Melt and Bleed. The full-wrap label material tends to
remove label and cap material by both elutriating and
melt or get sticky at temperatures of 165 degrees
float / sinking: separating material by density variances
centigrade or lower. This results in material coating or
using air and water mediums. However, the full-wrap
clumping in dryers and requires costly and
labels are so heavy that in order to gain any removal
unscheduled maintenance. Many labels tested also
efficiency, the elutriation equipment must be set at levels
bleed ink into the wash water while being processed.
that also remove as much as 20% of the PET
While the impact of this on flake quality is still being
(particularly the newer light-weight water bottles); in the
evaluated, there are also concerns about the impact
case of float / sinking, the label material simply sinks with
of effluent discharge.
National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), PO Box 1327, Sonoma, CA 95476, 707/996-4207, www.napcor.com
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Full-Wrap Shrink Labels: Their Impact on PET Bottle Recycling and Sustainability
Why can’t reclaimers
remove these labels...
In a nutshell: they do not float in
water, but the problems really
start earlier in the process.
– OPS, PETG, PLA and PVC –
shrink even more, tightening around
the bottle. They become impervious
to standard agitation, or even
attempts to slice them off manually.
On some occasions, labels actually
melt over the bottles.
Most reclaimers, particularly those
that process curbside material,
perform a pre-wash on the bottles.
This is done to remove as many
labels as possible prior to the
bottles being presented to the
autosort unit for identification. These
pre-washers run at very hot water
temperatures, or even steam
conditions, to loosen the dirt and
labels by shrinking the bottle a little.
If the bottles are not removed after
the prewash, the labels will travel
t h ro u g h t h e g r a n u l a t i o n a n d
elutriation, float/sink, wash and dry
parts of the process (not necessarily
in that order) and stay with the PET,
resisting efforts to be separated,
either by air or water, due to their
specific gravity being too similar to
that of PET (greater than one).
U n f o r t u n a t e l y, t h e m a t e r i a l s
generally used in the full-wrap labels
In some systems, the contaminating
labels will curl or otherwise densify
making it even more difficult to
remove them. In most cases, the
dried RPET flake is then passed
through different types of flake
sorters that remove trace
contaminants, including color, metal
and other resin as a final quality
control step.
While many flake sorters can detect
m o s t o f t h e o ff e n d i n g l a b e l
materials, none are wholly effective
at removing the quantity of material
seen at this stage if these bottles
are left in the stream at the current
or increased percentages. The flake
sorting technologies are meant as a
final polishing step, not for primary
sorting.
Contamination Impacts: Depending on the label material substrate, these residual contaminants
cause a myriad of further challenges if present when the PET recyclate is processed. While some
applications (fiber) can tolerate certain contaminants better than other applications (packaging), the
overall quality of the RPET is impacted as is next-use customers’ ability to process it back into
products of acceptable quality. These impacts include, but are not limited to:
-
Substantial loss of intrinsic viscosity (IV)
-
Color issues, including yellowing
and/or graying
-
Loss of clarity / haze
-
Extruder drool or drip
-
Black specks
Super sacks storing full-wrap bottles in reclamation yard
National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), PO Box 1327, Sonoma, CA 95476, 707/996-4207, www.napcor.com!
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Full-Wrap Shrink Labels: Their Impact on PET Bottle Recycling and Sustainability
The Solution: While “temporary” soluEons have been discussed involving zippered or scored labels that would make them easier to remove, or a return to paper labels, clearly the most effecEve long-­‐term soluEon is to use a label that floats and is compaEble with the exisEng label stream and PET recycling infrastructure, consistent with APR’s Design for Recycling Guidelines at h.p://
www.plasEcsrecycling.org/technical-­‐resources/design-­‐for-­‐recyclability-­‐guidelines (see page 12 for label informaEon). This will allow these valuable bo.les to be recycled in an efficient fashion, improve the quality of RPET available, and remove an obstacle prevenEng more labels from being recycled. Sustainability:
Federal Trade Commission Implications: For those companies embracing the principles of The Federal Trade Commission Guides for the Use of sustainability, addressing this issue is a priority Environmental MarkeEng Claims state that if an since there is no sustainability for plasEc bo.les incidental component significantly limits the ability to without recycling, and no recycling without an recycle a product or package, a claim of recyclability economically viable reclamaEon industry. Full-­‐
would be decepEve. wrap labels that sink in water are threatening this h.p://www.`c.gov/bcp/grnrule/guides980427.htm viability—and the overarching sustainability (s. 260.7{d})
premise for PET—by adversely impacEng the recycling of not just the PET bo.le, but the label itself. In 2010, PET reclaimers reported over six million The conEnued use of full-­‐wrap shrink labels that sink would negate the ability to use claims that indicate recyclability, or messages that encourage the consumer to recycle. pounds of labels recovered and sold to end users. ConEnued use of full-­‐wrap labels that sink threaten these fledgling efforts, and once again runs counter to sustainability principles.
National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), PO Box 1327, Sonoma, CA 95476, 707/996-4207, www.napcor.com!
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