Packaging Tapes: To Recycle Or Not, And If So, How?

Timothy B. Jensen, Ph.D.
3M

Abstract

Packaging tapes are the most widely used pressure sensitive adhesive tapes with global production in excess of 10 billion sq. meters per year. Their primary application is corrugated carton closure. Since carton recycling is a well established practice, two questions arise; first, does the tape interfere with the recycling of the cartons; second, should or can the tape be recycled? Comprehensive studies have shown that polypropylene box sealing tapes do not appreciably interfere with the carton recycling process and that tape residue from the process may be recycled by means of incineration with energy recovery.

Introduction

Environmental issues have become increasingly important in much of the industrialized world over the last third of the 20^th Century. These concerns are now new: citizens of classical Greece worried about deforestation well before the birth of Christ. Yet the immediacy of modern times with high energy consumption, increased emissions from manufacturing and agriculture, and an expanding human population seems to intrude across most aspects of society and has weighed heavily in major political campaigns. In fact, contrary to commonly held views that environmental issues are technical or scientific in nature, they are primarily political with a strong economic flavor. While science can provide regulatory guidance and solutions, at least partial, to some problems, the issues are ultimately resolved in the arena of the political economy.

That is why words, with their power to define and deceive, become very important. What is meant by environmentally friendly, environmentally benign? What is recycling? What is the public interest?

The world of packaging with concomitant food safety and municipal solid waste issues is even more subject to an Orwellian future since almost every9one has experience with packaged goods and has an opinion. Terms like degradable, biodegradable, recyclable, recycled, natural, safe, reusable, etc. are often found on packaging without clear definition. Europe, particularly Germany, has focused on packaging waste with a wide range of regulations and directives.

For the scientist or engineer working in the area of environmental issues, a balanced perspective is invaluable, one that recognizes that some concerns are well placed and that some practices are clearly inimical to health and safety and that others are less so and some even may result from the elevation of environmentalism to a modern secular religion where belief  replaces dispassionate factual analysis.

Conceptual Framework

A number of reputable organizations and individual writers have attempted to provide conceptual frameworks for analysis and resolution of environmental concerns. These usually involve the doctrine of life cycle assessment (LCA) to provide guidance LCA accounts for total emission and total energy consumption over the lifetime of a product. A good early example was that of Hocking INSERT INTO [lzx].[dbo].[tb_new]([id],[type],[title],[source],[personal],[image],[contents],[time],[number]) VALUES (1) which compared polystyrene with paper beverage containers for single use. Contrary to the perception that paper drink containers are environmentally "friendly", it was found that the production, use, and disposal/recycling of the paper container required more energy and produced two-and-one half times more emissions than the plastic container’s life cycle. This principle has been embodied in life cycle management (LCM) as described by DeSimone and Popoff INSERT INTO [lzx].[dbo].[tb_new]([id],[type],[title],[source],[personal],[image],[contents],[time],[number]) VALUES (2). Another framework is that of the ISO14000 Environmental Management System which is the environmental analog of ISO 9000 for quality. More specific to packaging products are the guidelines provided by the Institute of Packaging Professionals (IOPP) the Coalition of Northeastern Governors (CONEG) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). To sum up briefly they suggest the following in order of preference:

• No packaging;
• Minimal packaging;
• Consumable, returnable, or resealable packaging; and