Glue on product labels almost impossible to remove

[PhilT]

@deborah1901

I think acetone would work out cheaper

Acetone will damage some plastics so be careful if you use it.

[petejr]

My pet hate is the sticky label. Too often it is almost impossible to remove without time, difficulty and damaging the product. When removed what’s left behind is a sticky glue residue which often requires a solvent, time and difficulty, with once again the potential for damaging the product. In my view anything sold with a sticky label on it should be marked down as shop-soiled.

[PhilT]

So many are unhappy with hard to remove labels.

From my old and possibly failing memory, these labels were introduced decades ago partly in response to shop lifters who would move labels from cheap products onto expensive ones prior to paying and partly because it was common for the contemporary labels falling off so the items were unpriced / un-scannable.

The pesky labels are cheap, and profits are important, and I suspect business has concluded few of us will refuse to buy a product because of the difficult to remove labels so are disinclined to use more costly alternatives (so far).

[Zan]

I see that the issue of sticky labels on all sorts of products has been raised back in 2016:

Glue on product labels almost impossible to remove

It’s the bane of my life removing stubborn glue from the labels of products I purchase. It’s not just that they’re unsightly but as is the case with virtually any purchase you make they’re virtually impossible to remove. Particularly annoying is make-up, mascara, eyeliner and other daily make up products. These labels leave a residue you require ‘orange oil’ to remove and if you don’t remove them (they’re designed to be anti theft) the stickiness attacks you every time you use them! This annoyi…

I’d love it if Choice Australia could advocate for a standarisation of glue used for stickers to enable easier removal.

I would think this would be a huge benefit for recycling of glass, and also for people like my own household, where we re-use jars and bottles for food preserving (jams, sauces, etc).

Hoping this post gets a lot of likes so that Choice can see it’s a campaign worth doing!

[phb]

Hi @Zan, welcome to the community.

Labels won’t have much impact on the recyclability of glass containers. The labels will disappear (burnt off) through the melting and remoulding process.

Labels potentially would be more of an issue for commercial glass container reuse - if glass containers were returned for reuse. The processing of containers for reuse, if it occurred but currently doesn’t in Australia, would deal with the labels through thermal and chemical cleaning.

We use a range if different glass jars for preserving fruit. We aren’t overly concerned if the labels don’t come off as we use the jars ourselves. We find however that they can be removed with hot water, dishwashing detergent and a scourer if the labels are a bit tatty and need removal.

[zackarii]

I remove the labels from my bottles to hand on to the jam and relish making ladies. There are a number of home cooks and also the Craft Cottage sellers. For resale to the public they buy glass jars and lids, then will re-use the jars but not the lids (they buy new ones). My home cooks will take the lids (they are pictures of fruit or vegetables) and any jars of any size I can find.

Getting labels off is a chore. I went through all the internet “environmentally friendly” methods - hot salty water, citrus oil + detergent, etc, but in the end I couldn’t beat kero. Cotties jam jars are the worst to get off. The Craft Cottage use a water based paste for their labels.