Dive summary:
- Representatives from more than 30 companies have created a association to find a solution for the troublesome labels around PET bottles.
- Labels that wrap fully around the bottle pose a problem for auto-sorting equipment and are difficult to remove in the pre-wash process, if a label sneaks past it lowers the quality of the recycled PET.
- Two ideas so far are to either make the label out of floating material so it can easily be separated or to create a slit in the label for it to be easily removed.
From the article:
We want the best solution for recyclers," she added, but also for brand owners who want labels attract consumer attention.
"It's going to require a lot of people to make some changes and do things differently," she said.
Eastman, based in Kingsport, Tenn., founded the consortium in April 2012 after giving a presentation at a shrink label conference.
"We saw it as a gap in the industry. There wasn't a group of people established to look after the best interests of the industry. We decided to be a leader and pull that group together," Whitt said. ...
