World’s first dedicated production line for sustainable and floatable shrink sleeve film opens in Poland

Innovia Films has opened a new 6.2 metre multi-layer co-extrusion line at its site in Płock, Poland dedicated to manufacture low-density polyolefin shrink film for shrink sleeve labels and tamper evident applications.

The film forms the basis to produce sustainable floatable shrink sleeves, which facilitates easy separation of labels from PET, HDPE and PP bottles and containers in the recycling process to enable bottle-to-bottle circularity.

Innovia will market the film under the brand RayoFloat.

Simon Huber, managing director, Innovia UK and Poland, said: “The new capacities will allow us to supply label and sleeve converters with high-quality floatable shrink sleeve material that has the potential to revolutionise the market and the way packaging is decorated to move towards more sustainable choices.”

CCL Label, the world’s largest converter of pressure sensitive and extruded film materials for decorative, functional and information labels, will market polyolefin labels under EcoFloat.

CCL Label has been partnering with multinational brands to develop recyclable PET containers for bottle-to-bottle recycling in a closed loop. Polyolefin sleeves are also a recycling-friendly match for PP- and PE-based packaging as they stem from the same plastics family.

“In recent years we have seen big changes in the market. Brands are increasingly following Design for Recycling guidelines and are re-creating their packaging to meet recycling targets. Labels can make a huge difference here, the functional properties of label materials can support recyclability and re-usability,” said Günther Birkner, member of the management team at CCL.

“The goal of our investment in Poland is to significantly increase the capacity in polyolefin shrink films which were hardly available so far. Through our global network of CCL Label sites, we are able to convert the recycling-friendly material into EcoFloat sleeves and supply those with short turnaround times to packaging lines. This initiative will enable our customers to boost the recyclability of their packaging.”

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