Packaging
EASY SLEEVE REMOVAL AIDS RECYCLING
Thursday 25. September 2008 - Leading shrink sleeve manufacturer CCL Decorative Sleeves is promoting the adoption of perforation systems that enable the easy and complete removal of sleeves from containers to facilitate the recycling process. Already widely adopted by PET bottles in the Japanese market, Mile High Drinks has now become the first UK company to specify the perforation system for its new aviation health drink.
With increasing demand for mono-material post consumer waste, and the need to minimise contaminants in the recycling stream, CCL Decorative Sleeves says that the adoption of easy-removable sleeves is becoming the ideal decoration solution. It also complements the recently announced Campaign for Real Recyclings (CRR) call for single-stream waste material collections.
“The decoration of a container can be a major obstacle in generating the pure waste material that is best for the recycling process,” explains Jon Cowan of CCL Decorative Sleeves. “Directly printed and coloured containers can cause problems as there will always be an issue in separating the print or ink from the base material.
“Sleeves can be taken off by the consumer before the containers even enter the waste stream. Educating consumers to remove the sleeves, just as they are encouraged to wash and clean the containers, can therefore help to reduce the costs of the recycling process and improve the quality of the recycled material.”
Mr Cowan says sleeve removal is well established in the Japanese PET bottle market where most of the containers are shrink sleeved and incorporate twin vertical perforations to facilitate removal.
CCL Decorative Sleeves is also now supplying a sleeve with two vertical perforations for the worlds first aviation juice drink from Mile High Drinks, which features ingredients specially chosen for their health properties in relation to the demands placed on the air traveller.
The 250ml PET bottle for Mile High Drinks Red Grape and Cherry Juice, which is being launched in selected Waitrose stores, features a full body sleeve label in a distinctive high lustre silver, with the instructions “Tear here and remove to aid recycling” printed between the two perforations.
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CCL Decorative Sleeves says that perforations can be incorporated into any sleeve without detracting from its visual impact, 360° coverage and ability to decorate even awkwardly shaped containers. In addition, the inclusion of perforations can enhance a sleeves shrink performance, particularly for more unusual shapes, by enabling air to escape during the application process.
The ability of sleeves to be printed on the inside also provides opportunities for promotions, competitions or further communication with consumers, that at the same time encourages them to remove the sleeve from the container.
While removal of the sleeves does generate further waste, sleeves are only a fraction of a packs overall weight and take up very little volume in landfill. More important, they have a high calorific value for incineration