Report: Are label sleeves making your bottles less recyclable?

Why some bottles still end up in landfill, and what you can do about it.

PET and HDPE bottles should be a recycling success story, but many end up in landfills and incinerators. To find out why, we used Deepnest to track packaging in real-world sorting facilities.

In the process, we found out exactly how much label sleeves impact recovery rates.

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Learn how one design choice can decide the fate of plastic bottles 

  • Data from real facilities

    Find out what we learned by tracking post-consumer bottles across 8 countries, and 13 major recovery facilities.

  • Expert analysis

    Understand why sleeves impact sortability, and what questions you might want to ask about your own packaging.

  • Industry examples

    Learn why brands have spent millions on bottle redesigns — and why they'll still need data to reduce EPR fees.

What you'll learn:

  • Exactly how much label sleeves impact bottle recovery.
  • Why sleeves present a sorting challenge for recovery facilities.
  • How brands like Coca-Cola and Suntory have adjusted their sleeve designs.
  • Where to find answers about your own packaging’s sortability.

Download the report

People assume that brands have a vested interest in the material that they use. That’s not the case, we use the material that we think is best across a range of different factors, and that could be different materials for different products.
Global Science and Innovation Lead
Global Science and Innovation Lead

Leading alcoholic beverages manufacturer

People tend to overlook the complexities behind packaging. Beyond just protecting the product, it must meet various performance, economic, and emotional criteria. It has to be cost-effective, function well, and sometimes even provide an emotional appeal — the ‘warm and fuzzies’ that certain packaging can evoke. And, increasingly, it must also be environmentally responsible.
Innovation and Recyclability Expert
Innovation and Recyclability Expert

Governmental organisation

The really heartwarming thing is that everyone wants to do the right thing, and I believe there's a genuine motivation to do so ... It's really about ensuring that the industry, retailers, brands, and packaging converters receive the guidance they need so we can all move forward together in the right direction.
Co-founder and Director
Co-founder and Director

LCA consultancy

Discover the research behind the report

Find out how we turned 20 interviews and over 50 academic papers into a single, impactful report on the packaging ecosystem.
Read the blog