The PE tubes are extruded tubes made of polyethylene, which can be printed 360 °. The barrier properties are low and are made from a mono material. These tubes are easy to recycle. The mono-layer plastic tubes are suitable for products that do not have any specific requirements in terms of barriers.
Laminate tubes
Many entrepreneurs choose a further developed variant, the laminate tubes. The laminate tubes are available in two versions:
The ABL tube consists of multiple PE layers, in which an aluminium barrier is embedded (aluminium barrier laminate).
The PBL tube is a laminate tube without aluminum and completely produced from plastic (plastic barrier laminate)
The tube manufacturers and brand owners are currently working on replacing ABL with PBL tubes. If the EVOH (ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer) barrier layer used in this case constitutes less than five percent of the total weight of the body, then the tube can be recycled as mono material.
