Herma continues with carbon offsetting

The company said this averts considerable quantities of waste and compensates for the carbon dioxide emissions of its 78-vehicle fleet. This is the eighth consecutive year that Herma has been able to claim carbon-neutral driving for the business across the year.

According to Cycle4Green (C4G) certification, Herma collected approximately 201 metric tons of discarded release liner from self-adhesive materials production for a special recycling process in 2018. With the help of C4G and the Austrian paper manufacturer Lenzing, this was again turned into label paper or release liner, both of which are reused by Herma, amongst other things.

Manufacturing the same amount of product from virgin fiber would have increased carbon dioxide emissions by 406 metric tons. By comparison, the family company's fleet only generated carbon dioxide emissions of just under 400 metric tons.

Dr Thomas Baumgärtner, Herma managing director and head of its Self-adhesive Materials division, added: ‘By participating in this recycling program, we not only make an important contribution to preserving the environment, we also somewhat counteract continuing resource shortages. Due to extreme demand in Asia, especially China, and continuing growth in Europe, we are facing continued resource shortages just like last year, for instance regarding paper.’

Baumgärtner said: ‘We must be prepared for the necessary resources to become even harder to procure in the future. I therefore appeal to all label printers and users to participate in the C4G recycling initiative. It is worth it – not only for the climate, but also because it curbs the continued price hikes for raw materials.’

C4G organizes the collection of waste release liner in a large number of European countries. Lenzing, a pioneer of eco-friendly paper manufacture, then undertakes the recycling. C4G collects a minimum quantity of five metric tons of material from wherever it is generated anywhere in Europe, without costs being incurred. A precondition is that the waste is sorted into different materials. Approximately 360,000 metric tons of siliconized release paper is generated every year throughout the European Union, the bulk of which comes from within companies applying labels.

Since 2010, Herma has been supplying discarded release liner from production to the specialist recycling company C4G.