Jul 20, 2023 - 3-5 minutes
How to Navigate Label Adhesive Sustainability
Learn how to achieve label adhesive sustainability and reduce your environmental footprint with our step-by-step guide to defining your sustainability goals, choosing the right adhesive, meeting specific performance requirements, and minimizing production costs.
As sustainability demand rises, it’s important to manufacture end-use labels that can help reduce environmental footprint. Specifically, your adhesive can be a key component in accomplishing this. However, it can be challenging to know what elements to consider and what questions to ask to ensure it fulfills your sustainability needs.
Use this guide to help you navigate label adhesive sustainability and choose the right option for your end-use label application.
Use this guide to help you navigate label adhesive sustainability and choose the right option for your end-use label application.
#1: First, determine your sustainability goals by asking: What does sustainability mean to me?
Sustainability can mean different things to different label manufacturers; while you know it’s important to implement it wherever possible, understanding what sustainability means to your company will help you assess how to incorporate it into your label processes and products. For example, sustainability may mean:
- Providing labels that contribute to circularity, which means you should consider focusing on recycling options.
- Circular mechanical recycling shreds PET material into flakes to form a new package.
- Circular chemical recycling depolymerizes the PET material, bringing it back to its monomer form to manufacture new packaging.
- Developing labels that help reduce carbon emissions, therefore you should find ways to decrease material waste. Also consider using bio-based raw materials in packaging materials.
#2: Once you define sustainability and your goals, ask: What types of label adhesives can help me accomplish sustainability goals?
When considering your bonding options, it’s important to assess which label adhesive technologies have the capabilities to meet your specific sustainability goals.
Improving Recycling: Waterborne acrylic PSAs can provide wash-off capabilities and fast processing speeds to reduce plant energy usage.
Reducing Materials: Hot melt PSAs are compatible with UV silicone release coatings for linerless labels. Fossil-based monomers in the formulation can also be replaced with renewable, bio-based raw materials to decrease overall carbon emissions. If you’re looking to reduce material by decreasing solvents, a UV acrylic PSA contains 100% solids, enabling fast processing speeds to reduce plant energy usage. The reduced weight also allows for fewer shipments, reducing carbon emissions.
Increasing Product Longevity: Specialty solution acrylic PSAs offer durability and higher solids than other solvent-based options to help reduce overall solvent content. Additionally, UV acrylic PSAs provide both high durability and shear levels while offering UV, plasticizer and chemical resistance to protect against environmental factors.
Improving Recycling: Waterborne acrylic PSAs can provide wash-off capabilities and fast processing speeds to reduce plant energy usage.
Reducing Materials: Hot melt PSAs are compatible with UV silicone release coatings for linerless labels. Fossil-based monomers in the formulation can also be replaced with renewable, bio-based raw materials to decrease overall carbon emissions. If you’re looking to reduce material by decreasing solvents, a UV acrylic PSA contains 100% solids, enabling fast processing speeds to reduce plant energy usage. The reduced weight also allows for fewer shipments, reducing carbon emissions.
Increasing Product Longevity: Specialty solution acrylic PSAs offer durability and higher solids than other solvent-based options to help reduce overall solvent content. Additionally, UV acrylic PSAs provide both high durability and shear levels while offering UV, plasticizer and chemical resistance to protect against environmental factors.
#3: Then, think about: Does my label application have specific performance requirements I need to consider when choosing a sustainable adhesive?
Outlining the main performance requirements your label must meet will help distinguish which adhesive can provide a solution and improve sustainability.
For example, if your label needs to provide successful wash-off capabilities to PET packaging, then you’ll need a label adhesive that is designed to stay adhered to the label during the sink float process, providing clean separation between the label and PET packaging.
If you need to offer strong adhesion while eliminating liner waste, you’ll need a label adhesive that provides ideal tack and peel levels so the linerless labels can easily unwind without adhering to themselves.
Additionally, you should work with an adhesive supplier that understands your performance requirements and offers custom solutions that meet both those and sustainability needs.
For example, if your label needs to provide successful wash-off capabilities to PET packaging, then you’ll need a label adhesive that is designed to stay adhered to the label during the sink float process, providing clean separation between the label and PET packaging.
If you need to offer strong adhesion while eliminating liner waste, you’ll need a label adhesive that provides ideal tack and peel levels so the linerless labels can easily unwind without adhering to themselves.
Additionally, you should work with an adhesive supplier that understands your performance requirements and offers custom solutions that meet both those and sustainability needs.
#4: It’s also important to consider: How can I incorporate a sustainable adhesive while keeping production costs to a minimum?
Ensure your sustainable label adhesive solution can be used on your current equipment or across production lines on multiple end-use products. You should also consider if the solution can allow you to produce more products at a faster speed than what you’re currently doing without impacting quality or worker safety. If your label needs to acquire sustainability certifications or be tested on the end-use product first, production costs will vary.
#5: And, ultimately, you may be wondering: How do I know the adhesive will improve label sustainability?
This is a good time to ask your supplier about ways they’re enhancing their adhesive technology capabilities to help improve your end-use product’s sustainability. For example, Bostik works with the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) to ensure our solutions meet or exceed recycling criteria. By partnering with a company that takes these certification steps, you’ll save valuable resources and production time to provide sustainable improvements.
Further, ask your supplier whether they’ve conducted in-house testing to prove the sustainability features in the adhesive. This can show you how adhesive formulations can help you reduce materials in your product and fit more labels on a roll to reduce energy usage. The right supplier will enable you to test all your options. At Bostik, we’ll work with you to test facestocks on an unprinted label. This will show you whether the layers withing your label construction perform efficiently and provide you with easy processing.
Putting Your Goals into Action:
When you’ve assessed the questions noted above, the right label adhesive will help you achieve:
Improved Circularity
Waterborne acrylic PSA technology offers wash-off capabilities that allow a PET package, such as thermoform, bottles and clamshells, to break down and be recycled into new PET packaging. The washability prevents any discoloration or adhesive residue from sticking to the PET application that would otherwise prevent it from being deemed recyclable.
Reduced Carbon Emissions
With linerless label adhesives, you can reduce materials by eliminating the label liner. This can cut waste production energy usage in half and enhance overall worker safety. Without the liner, it will provide a smaller variable print length than traditional labels so you can fit more labels on one roll, and therefore more rolls in a single shipment, helping you reduce your carbon footprint.
Additionally, using hot melt, bio-based label adhesives that are derived from renewable biomass can yield a reduced carbon footprint. Using a proven, patented solution can ensure your label adhesive provides high performance levels.
Improved Circularity
Waterborne acrylic PSA technology offers wash-off capabilities that allow a PET package, such as thermoform, bottles and clamshells, to break down and be recycled into new PET packaging. The washability prevents any discoloration or adhesive residue from sticking to the PET application that would otherwise prevent it from being deemed recyclable.
Reduced Carbon Emissions
With linerless label adhesives, you can reduce materials by eliminating the label liner. This can cut waste production energy usage in half and enhance overall worker safety. Without the liner, it will provide a smaller variable print length than traditional labels so you can fit more labels on one roll, and therefore more rolls in a single shipment, helping you reduce your carbon footprint.
Additionally, using hot melt, bio-based label adhesives that are derived from renewable biomass can yield a reduced carbon footprint. Using a proven, patented solution can ensure your label adhesive provides high performance levels.
How Bostik’s Sustainable Solutions Help You
With the market’s most complete and integrated PSA portfolio, Bostik has the knowledge and support capabilities to ensure you’re making the right decisions to enhance sustainability in your end-use labels.
Our all-temperature, wash-off label adhesive is formulated for all-temperature conditions, increasing your ability to use sustainable labels across applications, even for cold-fill and freezer-grade applications that require good tack down to 0°F (-17°C). As a coater-ready, fully formulated solution, this type of wash-off label adhesive favors biaxially-oriented polypropylene facestock, which enables clean PET separation. Further, it is already proven to meet or exceed Critical Guidance Criteria by the Association of Plastic Recyclers for PET applications.
We also offer linerless label adhesives that allow you to provide direct thermal print options for ecommerce, weigh scale and to-go restaurant labels with the same adhesion performance as a linered label. Our linerless label adhesives allow labels to fit twice as many per roll compared to traditional labels, reducing processing times to deliver more end-use labels with fewer materials. Additionally, you will eliminate a step of applying the label to a liner. This option can also be tested in Bostik’s pilot coater, allowing you to develop a linerless label without taking time away from your regular production.
Both all-temperature, wash-off label adhesives and linerless label adhesives can be coated on water-based equipment, allowing you to use what you currently own. Linerless label adhesives can also be coated on hot melt equipment.
Additionally, our hot melt, bio-based label adhesives are derived from renewable biomass to yield a reduced carbon footprint. Certified by the testing method ASTM D6866-22 (Method B), our bio-based options are proven, patented solutions to ensure your label adhesive provides high performance levels.
Are you ready to navigate sustainability in your label manufacturing? Contact a Bostik expert today to learn how our adhesive solutions can help you!
Our all-temperature, wash-off label adhesive is formulated for all-temperature conditions, increasing your ability to use sustainable labels across applications, even for cold-fill and freezer-grade applications that require good tack down to 0°F (-17°C). As a coater-ready, fully formulated solution, this type of wash-off label adhesive favors biaxially-oriented polypropylene facestock, which enables clean PET separation. Further, it is already proven to meet or exceed Critical Guidance Criteria by the Association of Plastic Recyclers for PET applications.
We also offer linerless label adhesives that allow you to provide direct thermal print options for ecommerce, weigh scale and to-go restaurant labels with the same adhesion performance as a linered label. Our linerless label adhesives allow labels to fit twice as many per roll compared to traditional labels, reducing processing times to deliver more end-use labels with fewer materials. Additionally, you will eliminate a step of applying the label to a liner. This option can also be tested in Bostik’s pilot coater, allowing you to develop a linerless label without taking time away from your regular production.
Both all-temperature, wash-off label adhesives and linerless label adhesives can be coated on water-based equipment, allowing you to use what you currently own. Linerless label adhesives can also be coated on hot melt equipment.
Additionally, our hot melt, bio-based label adhesives are derived from renewable biomass to yield a reduced carbon footprint. Certified by the testing method ASTM D6866-22 (Method B), our bio-based options are proven, patented solutions to ensure your label adhesive provides high performance levels.
Are you ready to navigate sustainability in your label manufacturing? Contact a Bostik expert today to learn how our adhesive solutions can help you!
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All information contained herein is believed to be accurate as of the date of publication, is provided “as-is” and is subject to change without notice. To review our full U.S. Legal Disclaimer, visit: https://bostik.com/us/en_US/privacy-policy/legal-disclaimer
All information contained herein is believed to be accurate as of the date of publication, is provided “as-is” and is subject to change without notice. To review our full U.S. Legal Disclaimer, visit: https://bostik.com/us/en_US/privacy-policy/legal-disclaimer