Companies using peelable labels for their products need to think more about how the rest of their packaging can be made greener.

This is according to Elizabeth Shoch from GreenBlue and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, who told Chemical & Engineering News that consumers are driving the need for change, with many questioning why they cannot recycle things they have bought.

"Packaging is so visible to the public. It gets a bad rap a lot of times," she commented.

Ms Shoch added that one of the main problems is when firms make their packaging out of lots of different materials that cannot be separated for recycling and so has to be completely thrown away.

She recommended that manufacturers should ask questions about the materials they attach printed labels to and see if they can be made more environmentally-friendly.

Design expert Tim Clarke told Pharmaceutical Technology magazine recently recommended that medicine packaging with pharma Fix-a-Form labels needs to be designed in such a way that patients can instantly recognise what they can expect from using this particular product.

Denny Bros Ltd, 08 August 2011