By-products from the label industry can be reused in the manufacture of other products.
Forestry giants are seeking to make their products and production processes more ecological through resource efficiency.
Megatrends such as urbanization, climate change, and the depletion of natural resources are pushing bioeconomy companies to develop more responsible products that have less impact on the environment.
From the very beginning, UPM Raflatac, a manufacturer of self-adhesive labels, has focused on developing products that are less burdensome to the environment and can also be recycled. UPM Raflatac's self-adhesive labels are used, for example, in the labelling of products in the beverage, food and pharmaceutical industries to strengthen brand image, communicate product information and facilitate product identification. The importance of resource efficiency as part of Raflatac's business strategy has strengthened in recent years.
“We started thinking about ten years ago about how we could more efficiently utilize the by-products generated in the production of self-adhesive laminates. However, the big challenge was to find a functional technical solution for how to utilize the side streams, which contain paper, plastic, glue and silicone,” says UPM Raflatac’s Business Development Director Erkki Nyberg.
When technical solutions were successfully developed, the idea of wider reuse of by-products from the label industry, together with various partners, arose.
In addition to the production of Raflatac's label laminate, recyclable raw materials are generated in the production of label printing customers and by end customers who label their own products.
"We created an operating model with our value chain on how to collect by-products generated in different stages of production and recycle them in UPM's paper and bioproduction. When waste no longer goes to landfill, our customers not only benefit from the environment but also from significant cost savings in waste fees," says Nyberg.
100% recycling
UPM Raflatac collects its own and its customers' recycling waste at three factories in Germany and one in Wales, and in addition, at a power plant in Rauma, recycled waste is burned into energy and steam, which can be used to generate electricity. The residual steam generated is used to heat paper machine rolls, and the remainder goes to the district heating of the city of Rauma.
Nyberg has been involved from the beginning in developing UPM Raflatac's RafCycle recycling concept, which aims to utilize by-products from the label industry as raw material for UPM ProFi wood-plastic composite, as energy in UPM's paper mills and as a raw material for paper. By-products that previously ended up in incinerators or landfills can now be fully utilized.
"The concept is a natural part of our group's strategic direction. We want to be at the forefront of developing environmentally friendly, low-carbon and resource-efficient products. Brand houses also require their partners to be more ethical and ecological, as consumers have become more environmentally conscious. In the future, legislation will also guide in this direction," says Nyberg.
Lighter and thinner paper
Resource efficiency has also helped UPM Raflatac to create new innovations in its own product development.
“Lighter and thinner surface and backing materials affect the environmental impact of the label throughout its entire life cycle and reduce its carbon footprint. Thanks to their versatile properties, the labels are a very competitive alternative compared to other labeling technologies,” says Matti Hakkarainen, Sales Manager at UPM Raflatac.
Labels for labelling consist of four components: a surface, an adhesive, a backing and its silicone coating. The surface can be plastic or paper, as can the backing. Instead of solvent-based adhesives, UPM Raflatac products use water-soluble adhesives.
Stickers account for approximately 40 percent of the labeling market. The market is now growing fastest in China, India, and also Eastern Europe.
How stakeholders benefit from RafCycle
Drescher Euro-Label, a Polish manufacturer of product labels, has managed to reduce its waste fees by 70 percent by using matrix waste from label production to generate energy at UPM's paper mill in Schwedt instead of sending it to landfill.
Wintek Flexo Prints in Bangalore, India, crushes and compresses its production waste into fuel briquettes using a local equipment solution developed by UPM Raflatac, which can also be replicated by other customers.
Italian fine wine producer Masi Agricola has significantly reduced its carbon footprint thanks to RafCycle. UPM Raflatac has developed the Label Life tool for environmental impact assessment, which shows that Masi Agricola's greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced by 26%, water consumption by XNUMX% and energy consumption by XNUMX% thanks to the recycling of by-products from labeling.
Text: Olli Manninen
Photo: UPM
