Amut vs shrink labels

On 20 June, at the Amut factory in Marano Ticino (near Novara), a presentation including start-up was held for a new dry removal system for shrink labels from post-consumer PET bottles, combined with a device for separating the bottles which come to recycling facilities pressed into bales from collection and selection centres.
The new removal technology developed by the company, a manufacturer operating in the plastic recycling sector for more than seventy years, meets the requests of recycling companies originated by the widespread diffusion of these types of labels, and the consequent difficulties in separating them from the packaging due to the use of PVC, PETG, OPS materials, as well as the labeling methods, often involving the product being totally covered to make it more appealing. The decisions of packaging producers are evidently dictated by commercial and marketing strategies, which often do not take the life cycle of the packaging into consideration, a cycle that does not end after usage.
On the current global market, the level of contamination generated by labels in bottles is at a very high percentage, especially when the post-consumer material comes from the Far East. The new mechanical separation system eliminates up to 90% of the labels, thus saving on the costs generated by a high number of bottles thrown away, which ranges from about 200,000 euro/year for plants that treat 1,000 kg/hour of material to more than 800,000 euro/year for throughputs of 4,000 kg/hour. The first market to acquire the new technology is, for the time being, the United States.