Another award for Herma’s PE label material

The Green Packaging Star is a joint initiative between a trade journal Kompack, Packforce Austria and Altstoff Recycling Austria (ARA). The latter is the driving force of the Austrian circular economy and a promoter of innovation in resource management.

‘Our joint project shows very clearly how recycling processes can be optimized at relatively low cost, especially with plastic packaging, and how products, in this case labels, can be produced with practically the same utility value as a similar product made from new PE granulate,’ said Volker Hurth, key account manager for cosmetics at schaefer-etiketten. ‘We are therefore very pleased that this is increasingly being seen in the international arena as well.’

Dr Ulli Nägele, head of development at Herma Self-adhesive Materials added: ‘If three companies pool their know-how and development potential in terms of sustainability as we have already done several times in this scenario, this will lead to measurable progress in the near future. The award from Austria is a renewed incentive for us to continue on this path.’

Herma’s wash-off label adhesive, 62Rp, used in the winning material, ensures that labels from polyolefin packaging can be washed off under suitable washing conditions without leaving any residue.

For example, used shampoo bottles can form the base material for a pure granulate, which can be further processed by Polifilm Extrusions into high-quality films, refined into Herma self-adhesive materials and used by schaefer-etiketten to produce new labels.

‘If everyone now joins in with the process of utilizing recyclable materials, then we are once again getting a significant step closer to the concept of an optimal cycle,’ added Dr Nägele.  

Just a month ago, the same material won the German Packaging award held under the patronage of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.