CHICAGO - The recommendations stemming from the 1994 Chicago meetings of the City/Industry Plastic Bottle Redesign Project, organized by the Environmental Protection Agency, were: Cans, closures and spouts on high density polyethylene bottles (except living-hinge applications) should be compatible so the post-consumer resin can be marketed into high-value end uses, like film and bottle markets, without manually removing the caps during processing.
Aluminum seals on plastic bottles are not preferred.
Caps on natural HDPE bottles should not be pigmented. Where needed, colored labels should be used for differentiation instead of pigmented caps.
Aluminum caps should be phased out on plastic bottles.
HDPE base cups should be phased out on PET bottles.
Adhesives on labels, including those on refrigerated bottles, should be water-dispersable during processing.
Decoration should be made so that the pigments do not ``bleed'' from the label during reclamation.
Metallized labels should not be used on plastic bottles with specific densities greater than 1.0.
Printing should not be directly applied on unpigmented packaging, except for date coding.
PVC film labels should only be used on PVC containers.
All layers in multilayer plastic bottles should be sufficiently compatible for the PCR to be sold into high-value end markets.
PVC should not be used in bottles for products that also are packaged in bottles made of other resins that look like PVC. This recommendation was made by the city participants only. Industry participants felt it inappropriate to comment, and abstained.
Makers of processing equipment should pursue the develop-ment of a low-volume, low-cost, automated system for detecting PVC that is practical for use in a materials recovery facility.
