Lotte Chemical Develops PET Bottle Shrink Labels Enhancing Recycling Convenience

PET Bottles and Labels Easily Separated for Simplified PET Bottle Recycling Process

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Lotte Chemical has developed a PET bottle shrink label that meets the highest grade for ease of PET bottle recycling.

Lotte Chemical supported raw material development and processing technology, Lotte Aluminum handled printing, label manufacturing, and evaluation, and Dongil Chemical Industry carried out film manufacturing and production. The three companies have been jointly developing shrink labels since last year and on the 29th obtained national certified new technology (NET) certification from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s Technology Standards Institute for the "Shrink multilayer polyolefin label and raw material manufacturing technology for PET bottle recycling."

PET bottle labels are used in two types: adhesive and shrink labels. The newly developed PET bottle shrink label is non-adhesive and has a specific gravity of less than 1, so during the crushing and washing process of waste PET bottles, the PET bottles sink below the water surface while the shrink labels float on the water, making it easy to separate the labels.

Compared to existing shrink labels, it has lower strength, making it easy to separate along the label perforation line, facilitating the PET bottle recycling process and is expected to increase the PET bottle recycling rate.

Labels are used on PET bottles to provide food information, and if they cannot be separated, PET bottle recycling is difficult. Although label-free bottled water has recently been launched, labels are still used on most bottled water products except for some, due to the requirement to display food ingredient information under the Food Sanitation Act.

Meanwhile, Lotte Chemical is conducting projects to foster ESG environment and strengthen capabilities of partner companies. Last year, along with 24 joint technology development projects, it provided research facilities and equipment to solve difficulties in raw material development caused by lack of equipment and facilities in small and medium-sized partner companies, supporting over 9,000 physical property analyses.

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