Innovia Films opens world-first buoyant shrink sleeve film line in Poland

Innovia Films has opened a new multi-layer co-extrusion line at its site in Płock, Poland. The state-of-the-art line will be dedicated to low-density polyolefin shrink film for shrink sleeve labels and tamper evident applications.

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

Simon Huber, Managing Director, Innovia UK and Poland, said: “The opening of the line concludes our strategic investment into a high-performance shrink film, that enables more circularity when it comes to packaging … 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.”

RayoFloat APO is a clear, uncoated, buoyant, low-density shrink film that is glossy, scuff-resistant and printable, with a controlled TD shrinkage up to 70 per cent. Endorsed by the European PET Bottle Platform (EPBP), RayoFloat is also suitable for use on HDPE and PP containers. 

UK-based CCL Label has been partnering with multinational brands to develop recyclable PET containers for bottle-to-bottle recycling. Polyolefin sleeves are suitable for use in PP- and PE-based packaging.

Günther Birkner, Member of the Management Team at CCL, added: “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. 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.”

EcoFloat low density sleeves, also endorsed by EPBP and make the difference in the sink/float recycling step at PET recyclers. This easy separation forms the basis of the yield of high-quality PET flakes that can be used in bottle-to-bottle recycling.