CCL closes loop with EcoStretch

The recycling facility will be located at CCL’s Voelkermarkt site in Austria, a hub for the production of stretch and shrink sleeves mainly produced for the dairy, beverage, and home care industries. Stretch sleeves material is thin, and its application doesn’t require adhesives or heat, which lowers the carbon footprint and makes them an eco-friendly alternative. 

The company is currently pioneering a technology that enables post-consumer de-inking of the printed sleeves, which will be used at the Austrian site. Stretch sleeves will be then melted, shaped into pellets, and returned to the manufacturing process as a new sleeve material in an entirely closed loop.  

‘As making our labels and sleeves more circular is one of our main goals for the next years, we are proud to be the first ones in the industry to offer a circular solution for stretch sleeves,’ said Reinhard Streit, vice president and managing director for food and beverage at CCL Label. ‘In addition to re-using and recycling the PET bottles, our beverage customers can now fully recycle their decoration on the bottles into new stretch sleeves – with our revolutionary EcoStretch solution.

‘There's a world of opportunity to rethink and redesign the way we make products. The new investment is part of CCL Label’s long-term plan to support Design for Recycling with its labels and contribute to a more circular economy. With more and more deposit schemes being introduced to increase the recycling rates, we expect the returnable bottle systems to expand.’

CCL Industries signed the Global Commitment of the New Plastics Economy, which is led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and pledges that by 2025, all its customers will be able to choose label products that will not hinder the final package from being recyclable, reusable, or compostable.