Label Release Liner Report: Developments, Innovations and Challenges

Recycling in the PS label industry
Dan Muenzer, vice president, marketing, for leading pressure-sensitive label converting group Spear, with a specialism in beverage labels, was uncompromising in his conclusions on recycling within the label industry. "An industry solution is NEEDED!" he said—after he had reviewed all the current solutions on offer, and the diversity and extent of the industry players involved in the supply chain. Release liner, he reminded the audience, is process waste—30 percent of the pressure-sensitive product. Currently in the United States, the liner recycling rate is just one percent. Compare that with aluminum cans (69 percent recycled) glass bottles (34 percent recycled) and even PET containers (29 percent recycled), and the extent of the problem becomes clear. Spear—large users of PET film liner—reclaim 80 percent of spent film liner through its recycling partners, Channeled Resources and Mitsubishi Polyester Films, but admit that paper-based liner presents more of a problem—and it is 80 percent of USA’s annual 550,000 tons usage of release liner. TLMI, he showed, is actively working to promote collection and recycling of liner waste—but it is a real challenge at converter level, because volumes are comparatively small.