FINAT Announces Winners of First Recycling Awards Competition

Hagmaier Etiketten and Unilever recycling efforts honoured at congress.

FINAT, the international association for the (self-adhesive) labelling industry, announced the winners of the first FINAT Recycling Awards Competition during its annual congress in Monaco.

Converter Category Winner

In the converter category, the winner Hagmaier Etiketten & Druck GmbH impressed the jury with the high recycling rates for both paper and film liner, the communication efforts made both inside and outside of the company, and with the solutions offered for other secondary materials. Finally, by offering customers take back of spent liner, the company not only demonstrates responsibility for its own secondary materials, but helps others as well.

 

Cellulose Fibre Insulation blowing machine from RecuLine

End-user Category Winner

The end-user category saw a number of impressive entries, but in the end Unilever edged out the others based on the company’s clear dedication to a zero waste to landfill policy. Not only is this clearly communicated on the company’s website and in its sustainability report, but it is also being reflected in Unilever’s long history in liner recycling and its impressive liner recycling figures. 

Jury honours recycling efforts

FINAT established a jury of international experts that was chaired by Jacques van Leeuwen, former FINAT recycling consultant and industry veteran.

"With the growing number of recycling solutions available today, we decided that the time was right to launch a FINAT Recycling Award," said Jacques Van Leeuwen. "This award brings recognition to the recycling efforts made by these companies and helps to promote the best practices in liner recycling."

 

Spent liner rolls. Source: Munksjo

The jury was delighted by both the quality and the quantity of the entries, especially for the first edition of the competition. The 11 entries reflected a total of well over 1000 tonnes of recycled film and paper liner, as well as a significant amount of recycled matrix and other secondary material. This clearly demonstrates that the industry is stepping up to the challenge to recover these valuable materials.

"While our own efforts to promote recycling are valuable," said Mark Macaré, Recycling Project Manager at FINAT, "nothing speaks louder than the experience of companies which actually have their release liner recycled."

Waste containers in stock Source C4G