Avery Dennison, a leader in substrates and adhesives, will be showcasing its newest next-generation technologies at Labelexpo Americas. The labeling event will take place from September 13-15, 2016, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL, USA.

As part of Labelexpo, Avery Dennison is promoting its latest sustainable offerings and smart solutions. The company will introduce its new CleanFlake Portfolio, which emphasizes recycling of PET containers. PET represents the world’s No. 1 recycled resin and is the most commonly used. “It is our desire to contribute to the supply of clean, recycled PET,” says Rosalyn Bandy, senior sustainability manager at Avery Dennison. “We’ve developed a really excellent portfolio of films and now papers, which have been third-party verified to not contaminate the PET stream.

In addition, Avery Dennison will be promoting Greenprint. This lifecycle analysis tool gives customers a real-time footprint right at the booth. Touchscreens can be used to make comparisons between film and paper options, thinner facestocks, traditional to FSC-certified offerings, and more. Greenprint illustrates the amount of natural resources used to make a product, as well as the volume of greenhouse gases and waste generated from the process of making those materials.

Avery Dennison’s goal is to have 100% of its paper products certified in the next 10 years. Of that, the company hopes to achieve 70% FSC certification. Avery Dennison is taking initiatives to provide FSC-certified materials to its customers at no extra cost, as well. According to the company, usable recycling content has flatlined since 2008 even though recycling in general has increased. In 2015, the recycling rate was approximately 31%, but Bandy states that the rate needs to be around 48% if companies want to hit their goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“We’re working hard to procure FSC-certified facestocks at no additional cost. Our goal is to always make them at price parity, and the reason for that is we want responsibly-sourced paper to be the norm and not be a niche product,” explains Bandy. “At Labelexpo, we will be showcasing our commitment to FSC and our product portfolios.”

The company will also take an active role in AWA’s Release Liner Workshop, slated for September 12. The event will take an in-depth look at release liner and the problem of waste in the label and packaging industry.

Experts at Avery Dennison’s booth will also be on hand to provide visitors with information about the latest regulatory compliance initiatives. A self-serve portal will display quick facts about specific Avery Dennison products.

The Smart Solutions Zone will feature Photo-Reactive Adhesive Technology. This technology includes a permanent and removable adhesive on a single construction. The exposed areas that subsequently go through the UV light will become removable, while the masked areas stays permanent. The product, which was released on August 1, 2016, can be useful for extended content labels, promotional labels, food labels, or any product that has a story to tell. The technology is explained further in the video below.

“It really allows converters the creativity to do whatever they want to do on a label, based on whatever they can print on the backside of the liner,” explains Anh Marella, senior product manager, Select Solutions, Avery Dennison. “You can make patterns or do things in a cross-direction versus what they currently do today. You’re limited by your imagination.”

Avery Dennison will also be displaying its TT Sensor Plus smart technology. This solution is designed to track temperatures throughout the supply chain, alerting users to the item’s suitability for use. The stored data can also be uploaded to a smartphone.

“This year, TT Sensor will be at Labelexpo as a fully commercial product,” says Alison Schuitema, Avery Dennison’s product and business development manager, pharmaceuticals. “We’re targeting the product mostly within the food segment–grocery but also in the transportation area. … We think the product has a lot of applicability there.”

According to the company, the user can program the label to record the temperature history of goods at defined intervals during shipment. The thin, flexible label can simply conform to a product or container. The data is tracked through a TT Sensor Plus mobile app.

“Our booth will be fully interactive, so we’ll have the product there with a temperature history loaded onto it,” adds Schuitema. “Visitors can view the temperature data and send it to themselves if they’d like to see how it looks when it’s delivered, as well as get an idea of how it looks and feels in a real-time scenario.”

Finally, the Select Solutions Mix & Match Portfolio will be discussed. Through Avery Dennison’s Prototype Lab, the company’s 17 technical experts are behind the development of its engineered solutions. The technical experts work to find custom solutions for the company’s customers, experimenting with new materials and modifying adhesives when necessary.

Avery Dennison strives to provide responses to engineered solution inquiries within 24 hours, and products are delivered within a week. In the last two years, the number of engineered solutions has more than doubled–with over 2,000 solutions created.

“I think that’s the nature of the industry, where everything is becoming more customized,” says Marella. “We want to be able to create specific products that our customers are demanding and their customers are demanding. Our experts are able to identify the application, and they’re asking the right questions to help the customers find what they might really need.”