TLMI has announced that the association’s Thermoform Task Force has published a White Paper outlining the current state of PET recycling in Canada. The goal of the task force in publishing the paper is to keep TLMI converter and supplier members across North America apprised of recent developments regarding the PET recycling stream and to offer an analysis on the recycle-compatibility of specific label constructions currently used on PET thermoform containers.

While the recent developments highlighted in the White Paper come from the Canadian PET recycling industry, retailers with significant market share in the United States have committed to only purchasing thermoform labels that do not interfere with Canadian recycling streams. These retailers include Loblaw, Sobeys, Safeway, Metro and Walmart.

Task force volunteer member Ingrid Brase, market segment director for Henkel Corporation, comments, “Our task force is pleased to offer this White Paper on recycle-friendly labels for PET thermoforms to the TLMI membership. The paper was prepared to offer insight and to provide a general update on the state of thermoform recycling impacting the label industry. Our task force was comprised of three other volunteer members, including Roslyn Bandy, sr. sustainability manager at Avery Dennison, Jeff Sherwood, technical sales representative at Flint Group, and Alain Paquette, president of Artcraft Label, Inc. Together, we visited a recycling facility and conducted interviews with experts to gather information for the White Paper’s compilation.

“We hope that the paper will stimulate discussion regarding how our industry is addressing this issue, and that we can use the information as an opportunity to further grow our market,” Brase says.

The White Paper is only available to TLMI members and can be accessed via TLMI’s Members Only Section on the association’s website, www.tlmi.com.