The Flexographic Technical Association presented its Environmental Excellence Award for Innovations in Sustainability to Avery Dennison Materials Group at FTA’s annual forum on April 27, 2014.
Avery Dennison was recognized for the CleanFlake portfolio, a collection of label materials developed to advance the recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) containers.
Direct printing, paper labels and standard pressure-sensitive labels applied to PET bottles tend to lower the recycling efficiency and the quality of recycled PET.
In 2010, the company says 1.5 billion pounds of PET were collected for recycling in the US, yet reclaimers reported yield losses ranging from 24.4%-32.2% due to contamination by labels, adhesives and other components — amounting to a loss of over 40 million pounds of bottles.
CleanFlake is a patent-pending adhesive technology that “switches off” when submerged in a caustic bath so the label cleanly separates from the PET flakes.
Although these labels adhere firmly to PET bottles or containers during use, they detach readily in a conventional recycling facility and rise to the surface in the float/sink separation phase, allowing clean PET flakes to sink for easier reclamation.
FTA’s Sustainability Excellence Awards recognize companies for pioneering efforts in developing innovative processes, products and management approaches that have had a positive impact on the environment.
This is the eighth industry award Avery Dennison has received for the CleanFlake Portfolio.
The company has received the Sustainability Award at Labelexpo 2013 in Brussels and the Global Green Award during Labelexpo 2012 in Chicago.
It received the Society of Plastic Engineers Environmental Award in the Design for Sustainability category in 2013 and the Koreastar, Asiastar and Worldstar packaging awards between 2012 and 2013.
Most recently, it received the Environmental Leader 2014 Product of the Year Award.
