With sustainability an increasingly important topic in today’s packaging world, Multi-Color Corp. is looking for ways to make its labels as environmentally friendly as possible for its customers. The company partnered with The Coca-Cola Co. and one of its water brands, Dasani, with an innovation that would allow PET water bottle labels to be thinner, yet still allow the bottle to be recycled. This solution is a monolayer label that cleanly detaches from the PET bottle in the recycling process. It also is an improvement over previous label technology, with which the ink came off the label, staining the recycling wash water and degrading the quality of the recycled PET flake. However, that is not the case with the new monolayer labels, which do not stain the PET flakes, enabling the flakes to be reused for subsequent moldings. The monolayer labels also offer several other benefits compared with standard two-ply, roll-fed constructions, including increased sustainability, enhanced operational efficiency and cost-savings opportunities, as more labels can fit on one pallet, it says.          

Multi-Color Corp., 4053 Clough Woods Drive, Batavia, Ohio 45103; 513/381-1480; mcclabeltalk.com.