Flexible Packaging


The new colour of sustainable packaging By Professor Edward Kosior of Nextek


the designated categories for recycling. Of course being able to identify the bottle under the sleeve and therefore guide it to the correct recycling stream would offer brand owners the added assurance their packaging would be properly recycled without relying on consumer input. This is where markers, such as the PRISM


fluorescent markers developed by a consortium led by recycling specialist company Nextek Ltd, come into play, ensuring sleeved bottles are properly identified during sorting. As previously discussed in an earlier article,


optimising how to extend global plastic packaging production and the all important after-use value chain. Not everyone is on the same page,


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however. It is interesting to see that whilst in Japan there are no coloured PET bottles by unanimous industry agreement, other countries around the world struggle with their attachment to coloured PET bottles. The same recycling constraints can be seen in other forms of coloured HDPE and PP packaging. There is no doubt that if we are to achieve


systemic change to overcome stalemates in today’s plastics economy brand owners need to take additional transformational steps when it comes to their packaging brand design. If we can’t eliminate coloured PET bottles


then we need to re-address the issue by separating the main colours such as white and natural plastics. This is achievable although it does mean that the bulk of the remaining materials are composed of various colours that create a new “self-coloured grey” once blended and extruded to granules. Self-coloured grey may not, at first sight,


appeal to brand owners, keen to maintain their original brand design cues, which leads us to seek other solutions if sustainability goals are to be reached. This brings us to the plastic shrink sleeve.


Sound familiar? Shrink sleeves have been around for decades. The first ones appeared in 1960 in Japan, when Fujio Carpentry Shop invented them to provide a new form of tamper-evidence, following the change by Sake from wooden barrels to glass bottles. It took almost 50 years, but by 2011 the


percent of bale weight of containers with full- body wrap labels had increased from 0.65 percent in 2007 to 3 per cent. Brand owners embraced the shrink sleeve’s 360 degree


30 May 2020


ingle-use plastic packaging has had its day and organisations around the world are now increasingly focusing on


design capability only to find there were some serious challenges with cradle-to-cradle recovery, such as difficulties removing the labels, the blinding of auto-sort devices through to melt and bleed issues. Today’s new shrink sleeves are vastly


improved versions of these earlier counterparts. Now they have double perforations that are easily identifiable and removable by consumers. The new sleeves also allow recognition of the bottle during automatic sorting, by polymer, even if the sleeve is still present on the bottle and they no longer bleed ink into the washing water. Upgrading the original shrink sleeves could


go a long way towards increasing recycled content and save on masterbatch costs. It would also preserve the original brand and design identity of the bottle to ensure consumer recall. In fact, all the initial design benefits brand


managers enjoyed when they first started using plastic sleeves are still present and any visible part of the bottle would communicate to consumers that recycled plastics are being used, something that will be seen as a positive for the brand owners. Improved recycling processes now enable both sorting and recycling with the sleeves in place. This is the case for PET sleeves on PET bottles although the recognition of PET sleeves on HDPE bottles might seem more challenging. Even in this scenario, however, there are a


number of potential solutions. Some recyclers already use bottle de-labelling machinery that remove labels and external contaminants so that bare bottles go to the automatic NIR sorters. Sorting equipment is now capable of


detecting both the sleeve and the underlying polymer if the sleeve is thin, for example 50 microns. This would allow the identification of the combined signal and enable the classification of the bottles into


the process is surprisingly simple. Fluorescent markers are printed on labels or plastic packaging sleeves. As the mixed plastic waste runs along the conveyor belt the high speed sorting system is illuminated by an ultraviolet (UV) light source that identifies the coded PRISM label, reads its code and air-jets propel it into the appropriate recycling category. Until now the Near Infrared Radiation (NIR)


techniques used to identify different polymers were unable to detect dark-coloured plastics as they absorb the radiation. PRISM not only allows recyclers to efficiently tag full-length shrink-sleeves, it can also distinguish between food-grade and non food-grade polymers. Following extensive trials PRISM is now


well proven in MRF (Materials Recovery Facility) setups and is plug & play ready. It is complementary to existing NIR technology and can easily be adapted to most sorting facilities around the world to target specific recycling streams such as food contact plastic packaging. This innovative technology uses traditional


labelling and branding methods that can be coded to specify the status of the pack.


BOTTLES WITH A VARIETY OF MARKERS UNDER UV LIGHT This kind of technology spells out a new potential future for sleeved bottles as it allows brand owners to maintain their strong design appeal whilst upping their recycling factor. In the current environment where there is


clearly “no away’ and Producer Responsibility needs to come to the forefront, self-coloured grey is set to represent the new normal colour of sustainable packaging that has been constantly recycled. The opportunities for innovation via sleeves


and labels is vast and could help both brand owners and consumers to meet their targets and expectations for recycled content. Making it technically possible for all our plastic packaging to be reused or recycled will go a long way towards boosting the plastic recycling sector and establishing a stronger circular economy.


unextek.org convertermag.com


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