CCL invests in sustainable film project to boost plastic recycling in Europe

“CCL developed a floatable polyolefin shrink film to meet the new market demands and to help Brand owners reach their sustainability and recycling targets set by the EU. We see this as the sustainable decoration solution of the future – for a whole range of packaging in the beverage, dairy, home care and other industries”, says Guenther Birkner, President of Innovia and CCL’s Food & Beverage business. “This is why we have decided to invest in new capacities in Europe to be in an ideal position to supply the growing demand we expect in the future. Alongside the investment into extrusion, it was important to secure the raw material supply first and we are very pleased that our partner Polyplastics decided to invest as well in additional capacities to support us long-term on our journey towards providing sleeve materials which have been designed to support recycling.”

Polyplastics is the leading global supplier of cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) under the TOPAS® brand and has announced plans to construct a cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) production facility in Leuna, Germany to meet growing demand for its TOPAS® COC polymers. “The cooperation with CCL/Innovia has been a pivotal factor allowing us to make this investment and setting up a second manufacturing site for COC” says Gregor Bommel, Managing Director of TOPAS Advanced Polymers GmbH.

CCL Label released its innovative EcoFloat™ shrink-sleeves last year. It has been engineered to perform ideally in the sink/float separation process of PET recycling plants for PET containers. This enables smooth bottle-to-bottle recycling to achieve high yields of high quality PET flakes. EcoFloat™ has been endorsed by the European PET Bottle Platform EPBP in their evaluation earlier this year. As EcoFloat™ is a polyolefin film, the material also is an ideal match for HDPE bottles and PP cups as certified by Recycling organization Interseroh with their “Made for Recycling” label.

“Our investment is part of our commitment to boost plastic recycling and take steps towards a circular economy as stated when we signed the Global Commitment of the New Plastics Economy led by the Ellen MacArthur foundation earlier this year. In future, the EU will set a target for the recycling rate in municipal waste. Reaching these will not be feasible without investing in new technologies for packaging materials that support ‘Design for Recycling’. As a floatable, low density polyolefin film, EcoFloat fulfills the requirements for sleeves as defined in packaging design guidelines” adds Birkner.

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