Label Conference - Brigl & Bergmeister

GREEN PERFORMANCE
• For packaging applications used for a few days (then thrown away) both the
impact of the product carbon footprint and the recyclability/biodegradability/
biocompostablility aspects can become important.
• Development of biodegradable adhesives based on renewable resources goes
hand-in-hand with the development of biodegradable plastic products in general.
• Possible application: The use of the hydrolysable (water soluble adhesives) for
bottle labels.
• Advantage: Such an adhesive would improve the ability to recycle plastic and
glass bottles by permitting easy removal of the paper labels.
• The adhesive dissolved in the water would then biologically degrade very easily.
**Originally produced for a presentation in Rosenmont, Illinois on 26th/27th July 2011
BOD-5: biochemical oxygen demand
Biochemical oxygen demand or BOD = the amount of oxygen
that bacteria need to biologically oxidise the organic compounds
present in wastewater = « natural degradation ».
BOD-5 = biological oxidation over a 5-day period.
To determine the BOD-5, several dilutions in H ² O (containing
« seed-bacteria ») of a test-sample are analyzed for dissolved
oxygen before and after a 5-day incubation period at 20° C in
the dark.
BOD-5 unit = mg O ² /litre.