Avery Dennison and Dow have co-developed a sustainable new hot-melt label adhesive that reportedly enables polyolefin filmic labels and polypropylene (PP) or polyethylene (PE) packaging to be mechanically recycled together in one stream.
The adhesive is the first of its kind on the label market, the companies state, and is approved by Recyclass for recycling in the HDPE colored stream – Class B.
Hot-melt adhesives offer excellent performance in labels for chilled applications (such as food), but standard hot-melts reduce the usability of recycled PP/PE material, said the companies. Because this new olefinic hot-melt is based on the same chemistry as PP/PE packaging, when it is combined with a polyolefin facestock, the label and packaging can be treated as a mono-material and recycled together. It therefore offers better recyclability than standard hot-melts without compromising performance.
