MCC brings recyclable shrink sleeves to South Africa

According to MCC, shrink sleeve labels are an ever-evolving technology, providing a dynamic and versatile choice for brand owners, however they can cause issues in the recycling process. Through close cooperation of industry leaders, there is now a certified shrink sleeve solution available to the South African market – RecycLabel. 

RecycLabel floatable is a polyolefin film shrink sleeve label that easily separates at the container grinding stage. The separation allows for easier recycling using a wet recycling process. The floatable label rises to the surface while the PET sinks, allowing clean PET to be recycled.

This technology offers low density, floatable alternative for the recycling of PET containers with Superior Gloss and Transparency for ‘no label look’ sleeve labels with excellent print quality. The Low Shrink Force technology eliminates issue of containers squeezing during full or empty labelling process.

‘Extrupet applaud MCC for this development. PVC and PET shrink sleeve labels on PET bottles pose serious challenges to recyclers worldwide and do not in their own right have a recycling solution for end of life. We would encourage more brand owners to support these developments by making the change to their packaging design and look forward to celebrating announcements of the same. Congratulations to the MCC team in South Africa for going the extra mile to get this over the line,’ commented Chandru Wadhwani, joint managing director at Extrupet.

Coca-Cola collaborated with MCC to bring this label to market and, in turn, encourage recycling across South Africa. 

Cliffy Muthusamy, sales manager at MCC Africa, said: ‘To support Coca-Cola’s World Without Waste vision of having 100 percent of its packaging recyclable by 2025, MCC South Africa has partnered with local bottler, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, to help bring the vision one step closer to realization. 

‘Being the incumbent supplier of shrink sleeves to CCBA, MCC’s RecycLabel solution for shrink sleeves was the obvious choice when the bottler sought out a sustainable solution which is not only suitable for their application process but is also well suited for the local PET recycling stream. Following the success of this development, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa has opened up the market to a real sustainable offering where a shrink sleeve is the preferred decoration medium.’