CCL Label has developed what it calls the thinnest stretch sleeve in the market, offering a thickness of 30 micron and designed for returnable 1 litre PET bottles that are typically used in the mineral water market.

According to the company this thin stretch sleeve was developed with sustainability in mind. With 30 micron the sleeve is a lot thinner than the standard 45 micron sleeves that are usually used. 

“This accounts for efficiency on the material side – a lot less raw material is needed to manufacture this sleeve and thus it helps reduce the carbon footprint of the product,” CCL Voelkermarkt product manager Thorsten Umek said.

“We calculated that beverage brands can save up to 32 tons of plastic material per 100 million sleeves – which is approximately the weight of over five adult African elephants.”

Stretch sleeves technology itself has several sustainability advantages. They are made from mono-PE (polyethylene) material that have a high degree of elasticity.

This means that no adhesives and no heat is necessary to apply them to the bottle or other container – it attaches itself and stays in place with the help of its own elasticity.

On top of that, it is possible to integrate different percentages of recycled content into stretch sleeves from several sources – including Post-Consumer Recyclate (PCR) material.

“Stretch Sleeves have been a popular decoration technology for the German mineral water industry that traditionally has been a returnable scheme. Typically re-usable 1 litre bottles made from rigid PET and increasingly rPET are used – which already is a very sustainable system itself,” CCL Label business development manager Stefan Schaeffert said.

“Now the bottle can have an even lower environmental footprint by combining it with the super thin stretch sleeves that w just launched.”