One of the major issues for the label printing industry is the waste the process leaves behind, particularly the much maligned release liner. This problem is being addressed by a host of recycling initiatives from both suppliers and industry associations. By Neel Madsen.

With consumption of self-adhesive label materials in Europe in 2010 totalling 5.3 billion square metres, translating into some 360,000 tonnes of paper liner waste emerging from end users, there is huge potential for recycling programmes in this sector to be successful.

There are of course some obstacles, which include the complicated logistics of collection where many small printers have only a small amount of waste each and are spread over large areas. Raising awareness in the industry and convincing all members of the value chain to take ownership of the problem is another challenge.

Siliconised release liner can be recycled through a special process not dissimilar to paper deinking, and the quality of the recovered wood pulp means that it can be used to produce fine and speciality papers.

Advantages

For the printer, there are a number of advantages to recycling release liner waste instead of sending it to landfill.

Firstly, it will decrease your carbon footprint and increase your green credentials, something brand owners are increasingly demanding from their suppliers and see as a competitive advantage. It will also future proof your production as proving that you run an environmentally friendly operation will become standard as opposed to a nice added extra.

Secondly, there are financial incentives, as sending waste to landfill is becoming increasingly expensive. This is unlikely to change as legislation becomes evermore restrictive as to which materials can be sent to landfill or incinerated.

Thirdly, it means that you are already complying, or can easily adapt to comply, with future government sustainability programmes and other potential legislative measures, both from the EU and other national and international bodies.

Legislation

The EU Council Directive on packaging and packaging waste was first adopted in 1994 and later revised in 2004 and 2005. It aims at harmonising the legislation of the Member States and ‘lays down measures aimed, as a first priority, at preventing the production of packaging waste and, as additional fundamental principles, at reusing packaging, at recycling and other forms of recovering packaging waste and, hence, at reducing the final disposal of such waste.’

Although release liner is not currently included in the annex to the directive, which lists all the types of packaging covered, Mark Macaré, public affairs manager and recycling project leader for FINAT, said that the discussion is ongoing and that there is a possibility that the final proposal will include this type of waste.

Market survey

At the 2012 Global Release Liner Industry Conference and Exhibition, AWA Alexander Watson Associates presented the findings of its release liner industry survey and current research data. Corey M Reardon, president and CEO, said that in terms of materials and markets, glassine/calendered kraft papers still represent a solid 41% of the overall market, with film currently taking 12%. Pressure-sensitive labelstock remains the largest segment, at 51%. Mr Reardon predicted that ‘in this market, 40% to 60% of liner usage for primary product labelling will migrate to film in the next five years.’ He added that variable information print (itself representing 50% of the label market for release liner) will, however, always remain paper based.

Geographically, North America retains the largest share of the global market for release liner, though Europe and Asia Pacific are nearly equal. North America is more optimistic about its growth opportunities in 2012 – predicting 5%+ growth, as does Asia Pacific – than South America, which anticipates 2% to 5% growth, and Europe, which expects between 0% and 2% growth. Overall, growth has slowed, but Asia Pacific remains the growth leader, and will, said Mr Reardon, ‘take over as the main region in the near future’.

Recycling solutions

As the European industry association for self-adhesive labels, FINAT has established a recycling project group and its objective is to support exploration of recycling initiatives and act as a gateway for solutions available. To this end, a web portal has been set up where information on recycling, legislation and sustainability can be downloaded. It will also promote awareness at industry events and through label associations such as BPIF Labels in the UK.

Avery Dennison offers recycling of PET release liners in cooperation with Morssinkhof Rymoplast, one of Europe’s largest producers of high grade recycled raw materials. The scheme covers most of Western Europe and is open to both label converters and brand owners at no cost, for minimum annual quantities of 10 tonnes of PET liner waste, which is delivered to Morssinkhof for re-granulation as PET.

The RafCycle scheme from UPM Raflatac promises to reduce the costs incurred from waste disposal and to generate income from the waste. The company explained that in 2011, one tonne of used ProLiner PP30 was worth €370 when delivered for recycling via the scheme.

In a recent initiative, the company has developed a new in-house solution for recycling paper based release liner back into pulp and paper. The waste can now be recycled at its deinking plant in Plattling, Germany, where the liner is de-siliconised and processed into pulp to be used as raw material for UPM’s paper products.

‘We are very happy that our constant aims to minimise solid waste and maximise the reuse of raw materials are coming true also in the label value chain. With four million tonnes of recovered paper per year, UPM is the world’s largest user of recycled fibre in graphic papers and therefore we have access to various types of recovered papers – now also including release papers,’ said MarkoHaveri, portfolio manager, fine and speciality papers.

Austrian-based Lenzing Papier and Cycle4Green Ltd (C4G) have been working on a two year initiative to recover and recycle siliconised backing paper and develop a sustainable solution for release paper liner materials in a closed-loop Europe-based recycling system.

The system involves the product being recycled back into paper products and has resulted in release paper waste now being used to produce recycled fine and speciality paper products at Lenzing Paper. The majority of this type of product was previously put to landfill, so the development marks a major step forward in meeting recycling and environmental targets.

The companies have developed three major initiatives to put the recycling process into place:

Collection programmes at release liner end users, which can be commercial siliconisers, label printers or label end users. Logistics solutions to transport waste material locally, centralised warehousing and directly to Lenzing Papier’s recycling facility (pulp/paper mill). Removal of silicone (de-siliconising) and processing of the fibre to be used in paper making

This development is supported in the UK by paper agency, Papico. Director Paul Johnston-Knight feels that the development plays an instrumental role in improving recycling targets and techniques. He said, ‘Developing ways to recycle products that were previously difficult to process is the way forward for the future of the labelling industry. These types of products are far more attractive to users because they will no longer need to end up in landfill.’