Easy separation of labels from bottles and containers to optimize circularity
CCL Industries Inc. announced plans for a strategic new capacity investment at their Innovia Films extrusion site in Plock, Poland. The world leader in specialty label, security and packaging solutions for global corporations, government institutions, small businesses and consumers will install a new six metre multi-layer co-extrusion line from Brückner Maschinenbau. The line will 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 to enable bottle-to-bottle circularity, an important goal for global food and beverage brand owners. The capacity comes online in early 2022.
“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 & Beverage business.
CCL’s innovative EcoFloat™ shrink-sleeves have been engineered to perform ideally in the sink/float separation process of PET recycling plants for PET containers. This enables smooth bottle-to-bottle recycling to achieve high yields of high-quality PET flakes. EcoFloat™ has been endorsed by the European PET Bottle Platform EPBP in their evaluation earlier this year. As EcoFloat™ is a polyolefin film, the material also is an ideal match for HDPE bottles and PP cups.
Brückner Maschinenbau’s COO Helmut Huber confirms how proud the company is of this project: “After successful cooperations in the last years, this is a further important joint step. Especially the strict orientation to a circular economy is very close to the hearts of both companies and points the way to a responsible use of plastic.”
