Herma saves 457 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions through discarded siliconized release liner recycling

Since 2010, the self-adhesive specialist has been supplying discarded release liner from production to the specialist recycling company Cycle4Green. Cycle4Green organizes the collection of discarded release liners, which companies would otherwise have to pay to dispose of, in a large number of European countries. Cycle4Green 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 Europe, the bulk of which comes from within companies applying labels. Lenzing, an eco-friendly paper manufacturer, then undertakes the recycling, turning the discarded release liner into high-quality label paper or release liner, both of which are reused by Herma, amongst other things.

In 2016, this saw 229 metric tons of discarded release liner supplied, saving around 457 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions that would have been generated when manufacturing products made from virgin fibers. By comparison, the more than 75 cars in the company's fleet only generated carbon dioxide emissions of just under 400 metric tons. ‘This means that our vehicle use last year was climate-neutral again,’ said Dr Thomas Baumgärtner, Herma managing director and head of the Self-adhesive Materials division. ‘And this is despite the fact that we generate relatively little release liner as waste material because it is part of the adhesive material that we produce.’

Herma wants to continue to support Cycle4Green's system in the future and also hopes to encourage as many of its customers as possible to participate in the recycling initiative.

‘We come pretty close to the “cradle-to-cradle” principle’, in other words a more or less closed material cycle,’ added Baumgärtner.