LABELLING 17 PETplanet Insider Vol. 24 Ravish Majithia: Based on a survey conducted by the Association of Plastic Recyclers, PET reclaimers already have magnetic separators as a part of their flake decontamination process. Removal of metal contamination from PET is important and magnetic separators are commonly used to remove small metal pieces from PET flake. Magnomer’s coatings utilise this existing infrastructure to separate undesirable shrink sleeve flake as well. PETplanet: What is the percentage of separation that can be achieved compared to conventional sleeves‘ separation? Ravish Majithia: In the case of PETG, the most common sleeve resin used in North America and EU, more than 98% of sleeve flake was magnetically separated using Magmark SS coatings. This is compared to almost zero separation if our coating were not present for PETG removal. PETplanet: You mentioned that the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) recently awarded you the responsible innovation award for the Magmark SS magnetisable coatings. How did the process work, what kind of tests were carried out? Ravish Majithia: The Innovation recognition by APR is based on high volume commercial recycling tests. This includes: Printing over 250,000 “innovation“ bottles using standard PETG sleeves with Magmark SS coating Testing a subset of these bottles at three commercial MRFs to show that the use of Magmark SS coatings do not impact MRF operations; Introducing over 2 metric tons of “innovation“ bottles at two different PET reclaimers namely Indorama Ventures (facility in Alabama, US) and Evergreen Recycling (facility in Ohio, US) to showcase magnetic removal of sleeves. As a part of the recognition process, the MRFs and reclaimers provided public testimonials to APR’s review committee which subsequently awarded the recognition to Magnomer. PETplanet: Is Magmark limited to use on PET bottles‘ shrink sleeves or can it also be used for other types of packaging/labelling? Ravish Majithia: Magmark technology can be applied to various categories of labels or flexible packaging – indeed anywhere where sorting of said flexible film is required. Our various current products and demo videos can be found on our website. PETplanet: Thank you very much Ravish! www.magnomer.com
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