Avery Dennison enhances CleanFlake portfolio

The expansion has added a selection of paper facestocks, in addition to an expanded film facestock offering. It also improves the adhesive’s convertibility, wash-off performance and waterwhitening resistance. Further, the adhesive is now compliant with the EU’s REACH regulation and is APEO-free.

Avery Dennison said the portfolio now offers a complete option for converters to meet the growing need for pressure-sensitive (PS) labels that are compatible with the PET recycling process.

‘The expansion of the CleanFlake portfolio comes at a crucial time,’ said Don Berger, marketing director, VI/Paper at Avery Dennison. ‘Consumer demand for recycled PET continues to rise. Brand owners, of course, feel this pressure. So, they’re increasingly looking to converters to help them meet their recycling and carbon footprint goals while continuing to deliver products in high-quality, high-impact packaging. The CleanFlake portfolio really is a “total solution” for converters looking to grow their business by responding to these dynamics.’

Introduced in 2012, Avery Dennison CleanFlake adhesive technology addresses an often overlooked part of recycling, using a water-based, recyclable adhesive, which cleanly separates during the recycling process. The adhesive adheres to the PET bottle until the very end of its lifecycle, when the cohesive bond is broken at the recycler in the sink/float process. This allows the facestock and adhesive to cleanly separate from the PET flake resulting in pure PET flakes, the conservation of virgin PET resources and less landfill waste, according to Avery Dennison. The company said that each year an estimated 560 million PET bottles are wasted due to label materials that are incompatible with the recycling process. These bottles are recycled into lower-quality plastics, or simply deposited into landfills.

Avery Dennison has worked with the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) and its members throughout the evolution of the CleanFlake portfolio. The portfolio passes the APR Benchmark criteria as verified by third-party testing. This comprehensive recycling evaluation serves as a performance assessment for labels in the plastic recycling process. Labelstock that passes the test is a foundation for container decoration that provides the best possible performance in the plastic recycling processes.

‘APR is pleased to collaborate with innovative label suppliers like Avery Dennison who work with consumer brands to meet their sustainability goals by helping them design their products with recyclability in mind,’ commented John Standish, APR technical director.