Label associations ‘unite on environment and sustainability’

At the recent Global Label Associations’ Summit held in Barcelona, Spain, alongside the Finat Technical Seminar, industry associations discussed an initiative to promote sustainability and environmental standards across the world.  

A statement released by North American label association TLMI said: ‘Leaders from label industry associations around the world united in endorsing the industry’s focused commitment to a more sustainable and responsible future to include the following: further reduce the environmental impact of labels; encourage more sustainable label materials and production processes; meet changing industry and retailer-driven recycling targets; and work towards the continued reduction of waste.’ 

Among the measures that global label industry associations, suppliers and converters are already targeting are:

• The promotion and encouragement of the use of environmental management and audit systems (ISO 14001, EMAS, LIFE) in the label industry
• Enhancing measures to inform, educate and support label producers in meeting current and future label environmental and sustainability targets
• Supporting the use of materials and schemes that encourage sustainable and renewable resources, such as FSC, PEFC or SFI
• Continued industry development of solutions to maximize cost-effective recovery and recycling of self-adhesive label stock waste
• Highlighting the development and use of thinner, lighter label materials
• Working towards further reduction in the amount of landfill waste and higher recovery and recycling rates
• Having a more prominent industry voice and input into global government, brand owner, packaging and related organizations that are currently impacting on environment and sustainability issues relating to labels and label usage.

‘The label industry plays a major global role in the labelling of products as diverse as drugs, cosmetics and toiletries, food, beverages, all kinds of industrial and electronic goods, and in shipping and distribution,’ said Andrea Vimercati, president of Finat, the European label association. ‘It is therefore essential for members of the world’s label associations and the industry to play a prominent position in developing and implementing the best environmental and sustainability practices for their customers and for the consumer.’

TLMI chairman Frank Gerace said: ‘Moving forward, one of the most critical issues facing narrow web converters, their customers and their suppliers, is sustainability. As the largest retailers in the world increasingly seek transparency throughout the supply chain, all of our companies will be impacted and held accountable for the environmental initiatives and standards we integrate into our facilities. It is essential that the world’s label associations come together to address these issues so that we may speak with a collective voice that is in the best interest of our respective members, and the industry as a whole.’ 

The members of the eight label associations currently endorsing these measures represent label production and usage in Australia, Brazil, China, Europe, India, Japan, New Zealand and North America, and between them are believed to represent some 70 percent of the annual global production of self-adhesive labels.

Current participating global label associations include: Latma (Australia), ABIEA (Brazil), PEIAC (China), Finat (Europe), LMAI (India), JFLP (Japan), Salma (New Zealand) and TLMI (USA).