Peeling the labels off beer cans

Or they could get machines both for making proper labels and recycling with the labels on. I get 0.15€ for every can I bring back to the shop recycling machine, provided I have not peeled the label off. If peeling I get nothing, and bring the can to the metal recycling point of my house, like cans from abroad.

 

Yeah, the recycling deposit programs that require bar codes run directly contrary to these kinds of problems

 

The pick up & sorting of recyclables varies. Where I am all household recyclables go into one bin. Sorting is done down the line by machines/people at a large facility. At some point in this process aluminum gets kondrinated or shredded and crushed by a massive high-torque low-speed piece of industrial equipment and is then pressed into manageable sized cubes prior to being melted down. Some plastic labels are only snrink-wrapped and fall right off. but sticky plastic labels from products can gum up moving parts of the different machines: belts, rollers, chains, gears, etc. That's what the recycling contractor claims...and again, they aren't recyclable.

 

I hadn't considered that. Some plastic labels do leave a very sticky surface on the can or bottle when peeled off. Allegedly certain things can gum up the works. For example, I'm not permitted to recycle shredded paper of all things! And that should be easily recyclable.

 

In NY (a 5c deposit state), returning sorted empties to the beer store desk is usually the easiest option. In principle, we should also be able to return a growler or crowler to a brewery for the nickel deposit. But most retailers (big box and supermarkets) expect you to shovel empties one by one into a machine that crushes on-the-spot and provides a ticket to redeem at the check out. Annoying that the machines almost never accept packages that the retailer doesn't sell. Even worse is the fact that the machines often reject packages that the store DOES sell.

 

Here in FL we don't have the five or ten cents return on bottles ---- which is a BAD THING!!!!! WE drink to many beers not to encourage recycling!!!!!

 

Recycling laws aren't perfect, but they do have an effect on keeping bottles/cans out of the landfill. I've read somewhere that Michigan leads the nation with an 85% success rate of bottles/cans being recycled because of the 10¢ amount, Kramer-esque efforts not withstanding. (People somehow get caught bringing their bottles/cans across state lines for the higher deposit, and they get prosecuted and fined.)

 

Yep. Same goofy thing here. No shredded paper and no xmas wrapping paper. Also they prefer uncrushed cans. That takes 15% of the damn fun outa "crushin' a few" w some friends! Ha!

 

In states with can/bottle deposits, retaining the label on the vessel is essential if you want to get the deposit back. I cannot believe leaving the label on the can is a problem.

 

We have deposits on all bottles and cans here in MA, so no dog in this hunt for me.

I've poked thru this thread a couple of times. I am assuming most people are talking (bitching?) about are the plastic type shrink labels needing to be removed - those should not have any adhesive. They come as a plastic sleeve that drops loosely around the can/bottle. Then the whole shebang goes through a steam tunnel to shrink the plastic around the can and it shrinks to fit tight. They aren't cheap and it takes a lot of fiddling with the graphics and colors so they look right when they are shrunk. But to get them off - a slice with a blade should make them peelable in theory. Shouldn't be any adhesives on those types of labels, but they do fit damn near like paint and getting a blade between the container and label isn't that easy. I like the "zipper" idea someone mentioned - that's someone selling us beer that is "in tune" with the universe, in my opinion.

The majority I see these days are either partial or full wrap paper labels, especially from smaller breweries. They are most economical and applied with some form of glue, although in really small outfits they could be crack and peel and manually applied like stickers. But usually the adhesive is only at the end of the label where it overlaps, not all the way 'round. I've seen a few "roll stock" type stickers that do have adhesive on the entire surface, but not too often. Regardless, they can be stubborn to remove depending on the glue, but usually hot water works. The real pains in the ass are the plastic ones glued or applied like decals to bottles (and cans) - I found that out stocking up empties for home brewing. I can't think of anybody using a wrap around glue on plastic label, but they do exist so never say never, right?

Decorated, or pre-painted, cans seem to be pretty rare in beers. Makes sense - they are costly and to be economical you'd need to buy in astronomical quantities and make the same product in volume daily, so they only make sense for huge volume producers (Coke, Pepsi, AB, etc). Makes no sense for small outfits who change what they make frequently. Bright cans (undecorated) you can bulk order ahead and slap whatever label you want on them relatively cheaply. I've seen a few examples of "pre-shrunk" cans/bottles, but they are pretty pricey as well for limited volumes.

I'd think full or partial wrap paper labels the most economical for small and even medium to largish breweries. You still need a label machine, but you don't need a steam tunnel and all the development cost for the plastic shrink wrap labels. There's a whole lot out there in label materials and how they get applied - totally dependent on the application.

I believe for our deposit bottles in MA have to have the label affixed. The machines reject bottles from breweries the stores don't carry as it reads the bar code, so I donate my empties to a place than can chase down the nickels. I don't have the patience to sit there for a half hour feeding cans/bottle into a machine with a portion of them getting rejected. The nickels don't make up for the time spent, so I give my empties to those who can at least turn the nickels into something good.

 

I think that what we're talking about here is this...



They're plastic, or vinyl, or whatever. Compositionally the equivalent of a bumper sticker. Thick and sticky, gummy, and probably really, really cheap to integrate into a canning line.

Easy enough to peel off - had it ever occurred to me to do so - but, as previously noted, damaging to small dogs' delicate sensibilities.

 

The shredded paper is due to how recycling plants work (assuming that you have some form of single or lkmited stream recycling). Everything goes along a conveyor with various automated ways of sorting. These include optical/laser, magnetic, and physical. The lines are designed to have paper and paper board run across the top while other items fall through gaps in some sections. So your shredded paper will fall through the gaps if it makes it that far, or more likely will gum up something before that.

The recycling provider around here said that anything smaller than a credit card should go into the trash because it will fall through those gaps and get put into the trash by them anyway.

 

Bottle laws also tend to keep broken bottles (and cans) off the street. When NY started deposit, I noticed a real improvement. Some backsliding because the deposit hasn't been adjusted for inflation. Too bad it seems too hard to go back to reusable bottles.

 

I have read that recyclers request that cans not be crushed because non-crushed cans can be properly sorted in the case of single stream recycling:

"According to Matt Meenan, the senior director of public affairs at the Aluminum Association, when crushed cans enter the recycling stream, they become more difficult to sort out and can contaminate other recyclable materials. A flattened soda can can be sorted as “paper,” for instance, thus contaminating the paper recyclables. “Crushed aluminum cans may fall through the spaces of the sorting equipment and either be lost entirely or improperly sorted,” he added."

Cheers!

 

All I know is people who peel the paper label off their beer bottle on to the bar top are scumbags.

 

Wow, so much to respond to here! Great thread. I never thought of this possible issue. I've been peeling off only my favorite lables as far back as the "bottle days" especially bombers. I have a pretty impressive collection on poster boards. I've always loved these easy to peel off "sticker" lables on cans because of how easy they are to rip off in perfect shape. For collecting all the great artwork on these cans!! Its made keeping them very easy, I apply them to so many things, its just a sticker!! But this recycling issue has me very curious about how my recycling center here in Keene, NH deals with it. I separate all recyclebals, and I've assumed they just get recycled, not thingking about the labels. NH does not have deposits on these... Pretty sad when you think about it.

 

If you find out, let me know! I wasted over half an hour yesterday trying to find anything online.

 

I will. I'll try the facility. The Recycling Centers web site is nearly impossible to understand or get any real answers.

 

As @unlikelyspiderperson and I have said, this is an issue that has to get solved at the manufacturer level or recycling plant level and cannot be left to the "kind-hearted consumer" to be responsible for peeling labels off cans. Beers drank to cans peeled in total beer consumers would be an astronomical number. Very interesting topic and sounds like we need to find a fix. I'll start pulling off labels for all the beers I drink if I have to, but this is definitely not feasible for the general population.

 

The automated can (and bottle) return machines (NY) require near-perfect (undented) cans and bottles. They rotate the can or bottle, read the bar code, and either accept the can and crush it or reject it back to the user.