LABELLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 24 No. 07+08/23 www.petpla.net 16 Discussing the increase in recoverability by using magnetic coatings on shrink sleeves Breaking barriers in PET recycling by Gabriele Kosmehl Shrink sleeve labels have long been identified as an obstacle to PET bottle recycling. With their patented magnetisable coatings, the start-up Magnomer aims to overcome these challenges. Their Magmark coatings, when applied to shrink sleeves, are claimed to allow efficient and economical separation – utilising existing infrastructure. The technology has garnered industry recognition and is poised to boost PET recycling rates. PETplanet: Ravish, first of all, can you briefly introduce your company, please? Ravish Majithia: Magnomer is a materials startup located in Framingham, MA, USA & Mumbai, India, introducing a patented magnetisable coatings technology called Magmark to transfer sortability features for recyclable packaging. Magmark coatings are printed using industry standard techniques as a transparent varnish to impart magnetisation on flexible films such as bottle labels. This complements widely used magnetic separators in plastics recycling to economically separate problematic labels. Magnomer’s coatings technology is a packaging design tool used to resolve long standing sorting issues in package recycling such as label contamination. Magnomer has received industry recognition from the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) on the basis of a first ever commercial scale recyclability test of shrink labelled bottles. PETplanet: Which labels exactly belong to the “problematic” category when it comes to economic separation and how can companies implement your technology in practice? Ravish Majithia: Shrink sleeve labels are simultaneously an excellent marketing resource - they are the fastest growing label category; and a significant deterrent to circular recycling of PET bottles. Major recycling associations like Recoup in UK, the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) in North America and European PET Bottle Platform (EPBP), Petcore and Recyclass in Europe have identified shrink sleeve labels and specifically PETG shrink sleeve labels as one of the biggest issues in PET recycling. The problem is sortation - sorting PETG shrink sleeve labels away from the PET bottles stream is the need of the hour. Magnomer has developed a magnetisable coating which allows for easy sortation of shrink sleeve labels away from the PET stream. Magmark SS coating is a transparent, foodsafe coating which can be printed on the labels using common high speed printing techniques like gravure and flexographic printing in high speed processes. The coating can be printed along with existing graphics requiring little to no modification to the printing operations, allowing for easy adoption with no capital expenditure required. We have proven our technology on a commercial scale. Over two metric tons of bottles with Magmark SS coated shrink sleeves were introduced into regular operations at two commercial PET reclaimers, Evergreen recycling and Indorama Ventures. More than 99% of the contaminating label flake was removed using magnetic separation. Based on the positive feedback from the reclaimers and their glowing testimonials the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) in North America awarded Magnomer the Innovation Recognition in June 2023. The coating itself does not impact any bottling process. PETplanet: Do recyclers need additional equipment to achieve a good separation performance of magnetisable ink sleeves? LABELLING Ravish Majithia, Co-Founder & CEO at Magnomer
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