Domino Printing Sciences, a leader in digital printing, has published a thought leadership piece that makes the case for direct-to-container branding as a practical response to sustainability pressures in the beverage sector.
The argument centers on label elimination. By printing logos, product information, and compliance data directly onto PET, HDPE, or glass bottles using laser or inkjet coding, brands can simplify recycling streams and cut material use without losing shelf presence. A handful of beverage producers have already trialled 100% recycled PET bottles with embossed logos and laser-engraved product details, often to comply with label-free mandates from countries such as South Korea.
It’s not without difficulty. Achieving consistent legibility on PET under condensation is genuinely tricky, and high-speed beverage lines run at thousands of units per hour. The piece acknowledges these hurdles rather than glossing over them, which gives it a bit more credibility than the average vendor white paper.
The near-term path Domino outlines is a hybrid one: partial labeling alongside direct coding to reduce material use while brands and technology catch up. In the longer term, the piece points to digital watermarks and QR codes as the tools that make full label elimination commercially viable.
The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) is the obvious regulatory backdrop here, and there’s data to anchor the sustainability claim: some trials reportedly saved several kilograms of CO2 per thousand bottles by switching to embossed branding and direct coding.
It’s a good read if you’re thinking about where cinline printing technology sits in the broader sustainability conversation.
