Sustainable development of self-adhesive labels

The self-adhesive label is mainly composed of three layers of materials: surface material/glue/bottom paper; Compared with traditional shrink labels and wet labels, self-adhesive labels have the characteristics of beautiful appearance, high-speed labeling, diversified selection of label materials, and local labeling, so they are used in packaging and are growing rapidly. Although conventional self-adhesive labels have many advantages, they are still "not environmentally friendly" compared with traditional wet labels, shrink labels or in-mold labels, mainly in that the backing paper used for conventional self-adhesive labels is only a processing material and needs to be thrown away after use; At the same time, conventional adhesives are not easy to remove after being affixed, resulting in difficult recycling of packaging containers.

On September 22, 2020, China proposed at the United Nations General Assembly that its carbon dioxide emissions should peak before 2030 and strive to achieve "carbon neutrality" by 2060. Therefore, if the self-adhesive label industry wants to achieve greater development, it must find a low-carbon road of sustainable development. As a label person, according to their own experience, share some label sustainable direction, for reference:Reduce - basically reduce the amount of raw materials used. Mainly through thinning, material foaming, material function modification and other technologies to achieve.
Such as 62gsm Glasin reduced to 58gsm; The express industry 40gsm is also used in large quantities.
PE85, reduce thickness to PE78; Through the modification of process and material function, thin stretch MDO-PE replaces thick blown film PE.
Synthetic paper foaming, by reducing the material density, can reduce the use of PP, PE and other materials.
Through the redesign of the label function, the manufacture of a paperless label (suitable for a square size label) can partially or completely reduce the use of backing paper
Renewable materials - Label materials are sourced from renewable materials. Such as paper materials, can be selected in line with FSC, PEFC, CFCC and other certified wood pulp materials; Plastics, using thin films made from bio-based materials (traditional plastics come from petrochemical sources), adhesives, using raw materials from non-fossil materials. 3. Biodegradable materials (Compostable/Biodegradable) - use the label material, can be natural degradation or artificial compost degradation. If flat backing paper is not plasticized: Non-plastic CCK (clay coated craft) replaces traditional PEK (Polyethylen coated craft paper), CCK can degrade plastic surface naturally, use degradable materials such as PLA, PBAT, can be degraded by industrial compost, reduce white plastic pollution.

Reuse - materials such as rPET, rPE, rPP, etc., to reduce the use of petrochemical resources. 5. Promote Recyclable - such as labels in the recycling process of packaging after use, under certain conditions, can be automatically separated from the surface of the packaging of washable labels, so as not to affect the maximum value of the packaging container recycling. However, due to the imperfect recycling system and the lack of industrial chain coordination, washable labels have not been widely used. For the film label, the separated plastic label, if it can be separated from the adhesive, can further recycle the plastic film. For example, the paper surface material, the adhesive can be beaten directly with the paper, which can improve the recycling value.

The above are some directions for sustainable development, and the current reduction is better; Other directions are implemented slowly due to high costs, or the industrial chain coordination is not good enough. Therefore, in order to achieve the goal of sustainable development, the label industry chain (government policy makers, raw material suppliers, label manufacturers, printing plants, brand terminals, consumers) must cooperate with the relevant parties