Paper release liner recycling open to all: RafCycle contributes to a sustainable future for the self-adhesive labelling industry

UPM’s in-house solution for recycling paper release liner is now available industry-wide through UPM Raflatac’s RafCycle® waste management concept in Europe. Label printers, packers and brand owners can have spent release paper collected for recycling at UPM’s paper mill in Plattling, Germany, saving on waste disposal costs from landfill or incineration.

 

With UPM’s in-house de-siliconizing process, waste becomes useful raw material. UPM’s network for Recovered Paper (RCP) Sourcing provides the logistical solution to collect the materials. The spent liner is accumulated and stored in big bags at printers’ or packers’ premises, and transported either to local hubs or directly to the UPM Plattling mill. At Plattling, the liner is processed into pulp used as raw material for UPM paper products.

 

Call to action for printers and packers

The process of spent paper liner collection starts with an assessment of the packer’s activities to identify the most viable solution for storage and collection. As the solution takes shape, assistance is given to optimize material flows to separate the liner from other waste.

“Drawing on UPM’s extensive RCP sourcing network, and significant resources UPM-wide, we are able to transform waste into a resource,” says Federico Dossena, Manager, Pre-consumer Recovered Paper Sourcing at UPM. “This is a call to action for the commercial and environmental sustainability of the industry, and we urge label printers to contact us and also to inform the label end-users about the direct availability of this service. Label printers may also set up as intermediaries, collecting paper liner waste from the customers while also channelling their own liner waste into the program.”

 

“The world is running out of natural resources rapidly and raw material inflation persists in the self-adhesive labelling industry. It is important to focus on the efficient use of raw materials and resources, and we have devoted time and resources for exploring end-uses for labelstock waste,” says Erkki Nyberg, Director, Business Development at UPM Engineered Materials.

 

Paper liner recovery through RafCycle moderates waste disposal costs for packers and brand owners, and makes a major contribution to a sustainable future for the self-adhesive labelling industry. All paper release liner is accepted, regardless of the colour or origin of manufacture.

 

UPM Raflatac, part of UPM’s Engineered Materials business group, is one of the world’s leading suppliers of self-adhesive label materials. UPM Raflatac has a global service network consisting of 13 factories on six continents and a broad network of sales offices and slitting and distribution terminals worldwide. UPM Raflatac employs 2,400 people and made sales of over EUR 1.1 billion (USD 1.6 billion) in 2011. Further information is available at www.upmraflatac.com.

 

UPM Raflatac's waste management concept RafCycle® offers sustainable recycling solutions for the by-products and waste generated throughout the lifecycle of self-adhesive labelstock. This includes process waste from UPM Raflatac’s laminating and slitting operations, matrix and start-up waste from label printing and converting, and liner waste from label dispensing. Through RafCycle, recycled waste is given a new life as UPM ProFi® wood-plastic composite products, energy or paper.www.rafcycle.com

 

UPM leads the integration of bio and forest industries into a new, sustainable and innovation-driven future. Our products are made of renewable raw materials and are recyclable. UPM consists of three Business Groups: Energy and Pulp, Paper, and Engineered Materials. The Group employs around 24,000 people and has production plants in 16 countries. UPM’s annual sales exceed EUR 10 billion. UPM’s shares are listed on the Helsinki stock exchange. UPM – The Biofore Company – www.upm.com

 

UPM Paper is the world’s largest user of recovered paper in the production of graphic papers. Recycled fibre represents one third of all fibre raw materials used in UPM’s paper production. Annually UPM consumes around 4 million tonnes of recovered paper in newsprint and in uncoated and coated magazine paper production. www.upmpaper.com