Flexible packaging | Avery Dennison

How to choose labels for flexible packaging

Your choice of labels for flexible packaging has a huge impact on the recyclability of your packaging and reducing waste.

Flexible plastic packaging is highly efficient, costs less energy to manufacture and, being lightweight, costs less resources to ship. Despite all these benefits, flexible packaging is often difficult to recycle. In fact, only 18% of the packaging films placed on the market are recycled in the EU.

On this page, we offer you guidance on how to select the right label for your flexible packaging. You will learn which labeling choice will help you comply with existing regulations, increase your product’s recyclability and reduce your environmental footprint.

What is flexible packaging?

Flexible plastic packaging is a type of lightweight packaging made of plastic that conforms to the shape of the product inside. This flexibility offers versatile performance and the opportunity for several packaging design options. Flexible plastic packaging is used across a wide range of industries including food and beverage, home and personal care and cosmetics. For the food industry, flexible packaging is often used for pet products, dry goods, frozen foods, salad greens and coffee. Flexible labels for food applications such as VI (Variable Information)/barcode labels, monomaterial nutritional information and reclosure labels are increasing. For personal care, this type of packaging is used for wipes, cosmetic products, cosmetic cream samples and more. A special adhesive is used for wipes and other wet products to provide additional functionality in the presence of moisture and to preserve the effectiveness of the product inside the packaging.

How to choose labels for circular design throughout a package’s lifetime

During life

Labels need to remain attached and legible for the duration of a product’s life. Conditions and duration vary from one application to the next and determine a label’s specific performance requirements. Factors to consider include the end use for the packaging; temperature and moisture level; product lifetime; food contact; printing technology; and aesthetics and branding.

End of life

To help reduce the environmental impact of packaging and comply with design for recycling guidelines, labels must be designed with circularity in mind. This can be achieved by using EcoDesign principles to create labels that enable recycling and reuse, incorporate recycled content, reduce resource consumption, and are sourced responsibly.

Sustainable solutions we offer for flexible packaging

Here we outline how to choose the right label for your flexible packaging, based on your sustainability goals.

Sustainability Goal:<br><span style="font-size: 25px; color: black;">Sustainability Goal: Reduce carbon footprint</span>

Sustainability Goal: Reduce carbon footprint
	Label specifications	AD solution	Certificates
Reduced material use	Labels made with less natural resources, such as oil, water, and/or trees*	AD RDX™ PP & PE films Film labels with solvent free UV acrylic adhesive	Avery Dennison Carbon Footprinting Tool reports
Recycled content	Labels made with materials from post-consumer or post-industrial waste streams or with bio-circular content*	rRange: rPP, rPE, and rDT films AD BioRenew PP & PE films	Avery Dennison Carbon Footprinting Tool reports

* These factors, as well as weight, country of origin, and more, influence extended producer responsibility (EPR) fees.
Check your local guidelines for details.

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