Blog Post: Unlocking the Secrets of the Recycling Process for Packaging Materials

Introduction

Looking to create a webinar that was relevant to NACD members, we were tasked with defining sustainable container systems and their relevance to today’s packaging market. 

Let’s start with a singular fact: Consumers are looking for environmentally conscious brands. 

Large companies, fast moving consumer goods manufacturers, and retailers are looking to, if they haven’t already, transition to more sustainable packaging and environmentally conscious practices—sustainable practices are increasingly becoming a  prerequisite for doing business. 

Some of these practices include lowering the carbon footprint and the use of renewable raw materials. In the same mindset, new sustainability regulations have been slowly shaping the global supply chain and new mono-material technologies are revolutionizing.  With all of these changes, there is much newness and confusion on this topic around what it means for a container system to be sustainable. Throughout this webinar, we discussed consumer trends and regulations, the systems we currently have in place regarding recyclability of container systems, new packaging technologies, and how your company can benefit from this knowledge moving forward.

The Problem ^{2, 3}

I know we just said that companies SAY they are interested in sustainability but will they put their money where their mouth is? Delivery and logistics services provider DHL conducted a survey of 2,500 small and medium-sized businesses. They found that 95% of companies say sustainability is important to their business. And almost half (48%) believe it’s extremely important. But when asked about the biggest challenge to achieving sustainable goals, 42% said the overall investment is the main obstacle. 11% said they had no clue where to start. The most powerful finding to me was that the majority of the businesses surveyed are willing to invest little - or nothing at all into sustainable ecommerce fulfillment. Based on this research, it is clear that it is up to YOU, the packaging provider, to bring sustainable best practices and solutions to your customers. You can look at this negatively or see the positive that there is a clear gap - and becoming your customer’s sustainability SME is a real and necessary role to embrace. Buyers - or your customer’s customer - are claiming a higher willingness to pay for more sustainable packaging. Research shows 37% of US consumers prioritize “environmental friendliness” as a buying decision factor. While this is significant, US consumers still rank overall sustainability relatively low as a buying criterion among other end-use factors such as price, quality, brand, and convenience. Therefore, it is  important to find ways to increase the budget for sustainable packaging by bringing together marketing, DEI, and corporate sustainability folks to ensure that packaging spend benefits not only the bottom line, but helps your customer achieve their other corporate sustainability goals and consumer promises.

Sustainability Trends in the Packaging Market ^{3, 4, 5, 6, 7}

In an effort to lower their carbon footprint, fast moving consumer goods manufacturers and retailers are exploring switching toward lower-emission substrates, and those operating in substrates with typically higher emissions are exploring more carbon-net negative packaging via shifts to green-energy usage or even carbon-offset or storage options. Emission transparency is important as well, with printing the carbon footprint on the packaging becoming more of an ambition for many of these companies. This would heavily impact the packaging value chain, resulting in packaging redesign and a further shift to use lower-carbon footprint materials which may not be recyclable.

There is also much discussion and marketing around the use of renewable raw materials.

Companies are working on improving the use of plastics by consolidating the types used and focusing on their recyclability by decreasing new plastic resin usage, and accelerating the use of other recycled materials like PCR.

The next trend deals with the packaging recycling stream. We’re trending away from a linear economy, where packaging begins with a manufacturer and ends with landfill disposal, toward a circular economy where packaging begins and ends with the manufacturer. The pinnacle of a circular economy is packaging that is both recyclable and contains recycled content. While no system is perfect and there is loss during each phase, the idea is for manufacturers to increase focus and innovate processes to increase collection and reintegration of post-consumer waste. Considering the current EPR landscape, there should be new packaging collection opportunities on the horizon.

Sustainability regulation for packaging is a complex landscape for corporations to navigate. 

It has become increasingly ambitious making it harder for companies to plan.

Regulatory approaches can greatly vary depending on the region and diverge even more when looking at the differences in consumer, legislator, and regulatory demands across the different regions. Overall the government response has been to reduce packaging waste and improve waste management systems across all industries. One of the most progressive regulations is Senate Bill 54, the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act passed in California in 2022. Not only has it taken the first critical step to building a circular, reuse economy by shifting the plastic pollution burden from consumers to the plastics industry, but it has set some of the most strict source reduction laws in the country. By 2032, California expects that: 100% of packaging in the state will be recyclable or compostable, there will be a 25% cut in plastic packaging, and 65% of all single-use plastic packaging will be recycled.

Recycling Process ^{4, 7, 8, 9, 10}

Recyclability of materials isn’t stagnant. It evolves over time as materials, technologies, recycling center equipment and the legal landscape evolve. With many companies using vague terminology and recycling icons to mislead consumers, it is important to note the terms, recycled and recyclable, are not the same thing.The recycling process has several stages. Bottles are first collected from a central location. Then, they are shredded with other PET or HDPE products, melted down, and reformed into pellets. Finally, those pellets act as the raw material for the production of new plastic goods, including new bottles. Since PET is widely used, The Association of Plastic Recyclers (ARP) is a great place to dive into. New guidance impacting PET packaging has been recently approved for inclusion in the APR Design® Guide for Plastics Recycling. While some of this is covered here, definitely spend some time checking this out. 

Recyclability of a Label ^{10, 11, 12} 

There are obvious marketing and legal requirements for container labeling, making it the best place to address the recyclability of a design.Recycling centers reject 560 million recyclable containers a year due to label incompatibility. So, why does this occur? 

Not all stickers and labels can be recycled because they may require more specialized equipment and sorting techniques than available. Even if a product is perfectly recyclable in every way except the label, the packaging will likely go to a landfill. Labels are processed by container pairing. This makes label selection very important. A paper label on a glass bottle is fine as glass recycling uses incineration, which burns paper labels off. A paper label on a plastic bottle is detrimental because plastic recycling uses washing, which turns paper labels into a contaminant that can hinder recycling technology. When talking about HDPE bottles, consider PP or PE labels since these labels remain with the HDPE throughout the recycling process (whether they detach or not) and have a minimal quality impact for the reclaimer. 

Adhesives, Ink, Labels ^{13, 14}

Adhesives and ink are important parts of the label, so let’s talk it through using the APR Design Guidelines (specific to PET). To be preferred for recycling, a label must meet the following criteria: 

• Printed label does not interfere with automated sorting steps
• Printed label (inks and adhesives) do not interfere with the quality and quantity of recycled PET 

Specifically, containers with no more than 55% surface area coverage by a label are expected to sort accurately in both near infrared and color optical sorters. Since labels for PET packaging most often become a waste stream, APR encourages labels that are as small in surface area and weight as possible. When PET packaging is recycled, it is not desirable for inks and adhesives from film labels to become dispersed in the hot caustic wash water. As a general rule, the recycling industry prefers film labels that float in water, where the ink stays on the label and does not enter the wash water. In the case of adhesives, free adhesives that mix with water may be a source of contamination when they mix and entangle with PET flake.

Caps and Closures ^{10, 15, 16}

Plastic bottle caps are sometimes recyclable due to your own region’s recycling center capabilities. Many US cities don’t have technology to recycle plastic caps.

If they are not accepted by a local recycling company, they must be removed or the container is landfilled. They are difficult to recycle because of their resin type and the seal inside that’s hard to separate. If your area is able to recycle plastic bottle caps, however, this advice actually flips.

According to the Association of Plastic Recyclers, “You do not need to remove the caps from your plastic water bottle before recycling them.” They say “While some people think removing the caps helps with sorting at the recycling facility, the opposite is in fact true.”

Metal bottle caps are recycled with no problem in most US cities, but they often get lost in the recycling process. Napa Recycling and Waste Service experts have advised metal caps be placed in steel food cans, and when it’s nearly full, crimp or pinch it closed and recycle the can and its contents together.  Additionally, preferred closures will be entirely plastic: PP, HDPE, LDPE, PE copolymers including TPO’s and EVA, TPE elastomers that can float on water after granulation. (polymers with density greater than 1.0 g / cm 3 will sink in the float-sink tank and be detrimental to recycling).  And please note that closure liners and safety seals that are composites of aluminum foil and paper are detrimental to the waste steam.  

Label Liner ^{17, 18}

When a label is applied to a package, it is released from a liner unless it is a linerless label.

A liner not only protects a label during transport, but it allows a label to be wound onto a roll without sticking to the other labels on the roll or destroying the integrity of the label adhesive.

Liners have a layer of silicone that allows the label adhesive to easily peel away, but the silicone prevents the label from being recycled through normal channels because the silicone cannot be removed. This leaves behind impurities when recycled and so is landfilled.

Liner waste currently comprises 35% of waste in the labeling process. An option to get around landfilling is finding a recycling facility that can process municipal solid waste and convert it into an alternative fuel source or seek suppliers offering linerless labels as well as application equipment. Consider this as low-hanging fruit to further reduce your customer’s carbon footprint. 

PP / PE Labels and PET Bottles ^{3, 10, 12, 16, 19, 20}

Matching the materials of the label with the product or packaging give the label the best chance of being recycled although this combination is not always the case.  At a minimum, labels should be designed so NIR (near infrared) sorting machinery can identify the bottle polymer with the label attached. NIR radiation from a source along the conveyor penetrates plastic objects as they move by, and a sensor measures the response of the plastic to the NIR radiation.

Each type of plastic  will give a unique response to the NIR radiation, which can be thought of as a fingerprint of that type of plastic.For  PET bottles, which are heavier than water and sinks in the washing process, PP or PE labels with a density of less than 1.0 should be used, which will float in water, supporting the recycling process. 

PLA Labels and PET Bottles ²¹ 

Now let’s take a look at what would happen if we had good intentions of matching a highly-recyclable PET bottle with a compostable and renewable PLA label. While there are no manufacturing issues, PLA, which has similar density to PET, will be confused by the NIR sorting equipment, sink to the bottom of the tank, and significantly reduce the quality of the recycled PET. 

PP / HDPE Caps and PET Bottles ^{22, 23}

In most cases, caps are made out of polypropylene (PP) or high density polyethylene (HDPE) and the bottle is made out of PET.  Unlike labels, caps are usually made of a different type of plastic than bottles and do not need to be recycled separately (if your area is able to recycle plastic bottle caps). After beginning the recycling process, bottles are ground into flakes before being vigorously washed in the recycling process —cap material is then separated from the bottle material during a water bath float / sink process.  APR’s primary message is EMPTY AND REPLACE CAP. A fun fact, according to a recent MRF Material Flow Study, flattening bottles can lead to improper sortation, and they may end up in the paper stream, so keep those bottles intact! 

Quest for Mono-Materials ^{24, 25, 26, 27, 28}

Mono-material packaging includes only one type of material in its manufacturing; for example, a product made of a mono polymer would be made of just polyethylene or just polypropylene.

It is easier to recycle than products produced with multiple materials. Regular multi-layer packaging is hard to recycle because of the need to isolate the distinctive film layers. Mono-material packaging eliminates the need for material separation, therefore lessening the carbon footprint of its packaging. Recycling of mono-material adds to the circular global economy, which helps eliminate damaging waste and over usage of resources. 

Thoughts for the Future

Some final thoughts for you:

• Global supply chains will be shaped by consumer trends, regulations, and technologies focused on improving environmental outcomes
• Continuously be on the lookout for changes in the capabilities of your regional recycling centers
• Wholesale distribution businesses will need to reevaluate their overall processes to remain competitive
  • Get serious about operational efficiency and adaptability
  • Enabling a sustainable supply chain on all levels of distributors 
  • Facilitate consumer demand for green, clean and ethical products

Resources

1. Mundell, B. (2021). 5 sustainability trends changing the future of wholesale distribution. Leverage Technologies. https://www.leveragetech.com.au/blog/sustainability-trends-wholesale-distribution/
2. Love, M., Brohan. M (2023, May 23). The environmental cost of ecommerce deliveries. Digital 360 Commerce. https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2023/05/23/sustainable-ecommerce-fulfillment/
3. Mckinsey. (2021). Sustainability in Packaging: Investable Themes. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/paper-forest-products-and-packaging/our-insights/sustainability-in-packaging-investable-themes
4. Key, R. (2023). Ultimate Guide to Recycled & Recyclable labels. Resource Label Group. https://www.resourcelabel.com/resources/recycled-recyclable-labels-complete-guide/?cn-reloaded=1
5. Cal Recycle.(2023). SB 54: Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act. https://calrecycle.ca.gov/packaging/packaging-epr/
6. Hi-Cone. (2020). The Total Cost of Consumption. https://hi-cone.com/2020/08/the-total-cost-of-consumption/
7. Plaumann, B. (2023). Kuraray: Sustainable packaging made of paper and innovative polymers. https://www.packaging.kuraray.eu/?keyword=monomaterial+packaging&device=c&network=g&gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwvdajBhBEEiwAeMh1U0AjTJPCHnNdlI9GbnGuXxD5W_JRz1jiVA-Q0APAw9XTuc9fZg3fERoC8qMQAvD_BwE
8. Cramer, K. (2020). 101: What is recyclability? Sustainable Packaging Coalition. https://sustainablepackaging.org/101-what-is-recyclability/
9. RTS. (2022). Plastic Bottle Recyling Facts. https://www.rts.com/blog/plastic-bottle-recycling-facts/#:~:text=Almost%20all%20plastic%20bottles%20can,it%20can%20be%20easily%20recycled.
10. The Association of Plastic Recyclers. (2023, May 22).The APR Design® Guide for Plastics Recycling Guidance Addendum for PET Packaging. https://plasticsrecycling.org/images/APR_Design_Guide/APR_New_PET_Guidance_Addendum.pdf
11. M_use. (n.d.). A sustainable label for a premium vintage.  https://www.my-muse.com/en/home/insights/recycled-wine-label-range.html 
12. The Association of Plastic Recyclers. (n.d.). HDPE.https://plasticsrecycling.org/hdpe-design-guidance/hdpe-labels-inks-adhesives
13. Crown Labels. (2020). Are Stickers and Labels Recyclable?https://www.crownlabels.co.uk/post/are-stickers-labels-recyclable
14. EcoEnclose. (2022, Feb. 7). What is the Most Sustainable Ink (in 2022). https://www.ecoenclose.com/blog/what-is-the-most-sustainable-ink/
15. Downing, S. (2022). Can You Recycle Bottle Caps? What to Know Before Recycling Your Bottles.  Reader’s Digest. https://www.rd.com/article/keep-caps-on-bottles-when-recycling/
16. Mohan, A. M. (2021). NAPCOR: Pet Recycling Rate Drops to 26.6% in 2020. https://www.packworld.com/news/sustainability/article/21809461/napcor-pet-recycling-rate-drops-to-266-in-2020#:~:text=NAPCOR%3A%20PET%20Recycling%20Rate%20Drops,26.6%25%20in%202020%20%7C%20Packaging%20World
17. Dabura, W. (2021). How to Recycle Label Release Liner. Hub Labels. from https://www.hublabels.com/knowledge-hub/recycle-release-liner/
18. Nedelcheva, M. (2019). Label liners: meeting the sustainability challenge. Avery Dennison. https://label.averydennison.com/content/dam/averydennison/lpm-responsive/europe/english/images/products/film/sustainability-clear-intenst/white-paper-on-liner-sustainability.pdf 
19. The Association of Plastic Recyclers. (n.d.). Labels and Inks. https://plasticsrecycling.org/pp-design-guidance/pp-labels-inks-adhesives
20. Gotro, J. (2017, Mar. 6). Recycle and Disposal of Plastic Food Packaging Waste 8: More About Waste Plastic Sorting Technologies. Polymer Innovation Blog. 
21. The Association of Plastic Recyclers. (n.d). PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate, Resin Identification Code #1). https://plasticsrecycling.org/pet-design-guidance
22. The Association of Plastic Recyclers. (n.d.). Frequently Asked Questions.
23. 3M Dubai. (n.d.). Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET).
24. APC Packaging. (2022).  Mono-Material Packaging.
25. Connext. (2022). Mono-material packaging: Why is it more sustainable?
26.  Morais, G., & Clavero, M. (n.d.). How mono-material packaging improves sustainability in FMCG industries? IMCD.
27. Markets and Markets. (2023). Flexible Plastic Packaging Market by Packaging Type.
28. CEFLEX. (2020, Jan. 20). Mondi supports Unilever with recyclable mono-material solution.