In the late 2010s, shocking news about the sheer amount of plastic in the oceans, alongside growing concerns about microplastics in the environment, led brands to make ambitious recycling and reuse goals. Companies set plans to rapidly reduce the amount of plastic waste in their packaging and operations. Several joined an ambitious commitment by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to create a circular economy for plastics. Part of creating this circular economy involves increasingly utilizing pressure-sensitive labels on plastic bottles to enable easier recycling.

Unfortunately, several years later, progress on the goals is lacking. Most brands are likely to miss their 2025 targets, and plastic use and production are still rising globally.

“As plastic use continues to rapidly increase, our time to effectively limit its most dangerous impacts shrinks,” Nathan Cole, head of sustainable business at the environmental disclosure nonprofit CDP, said in a statement. “ We must accelerate action on plastics urgently.”

While a part of this is due to some brands greenwashing or not properly investing in sustainability, Pascale Wautelet, the vice president of global research and development and sustainability at the materials science company Avery Dennison, thinks lack of knowledge and data are also an important part of the problem.

“I think the scale of the ambition for 100 percent recyclability, reuse, and compostability by 2030 was huge and bold,” Wautelet told TriplePundit. “But this topic was new for many, and I think everyone across the value chain underestimated the size of the complexity.”

When it comes to consumer goods companies, packaging is a glaring sustainability challenge, demonstrating the need for pressure-sensitive labels. Goods can be purchased in a variety of different types of bottles, bags, or containers that often utilize several different types of plastics, sometimes mixed with cardboard, metals or other materials. The reasons for this complexity are multifold — safety, marketing or to prevent spoilage — but they end up making recycling and reuse more difficult.

Another factor often ignored is labels and caps made up of different materials and attached to packaging. If not removed properly, they can clog or harm recycling and reuse systems and are rarely recyclable themselves.

Read the full article about pressure-sensitive labels for recycling by Nithin Coca at TriplePundit.