UPM’s release liner recycling available industry-wide

UPM’s in-house program for recycling paper release liner is now available industry-wide through UPM Raflatac’s RafCycle waste management concept in Europe. Label printers, packers and brand owners can have spent release paper collected for recycling at UPM’s paper mill in Plattling, Germany, saving on waste disposal costs from landfill or incineration.

With UPM’s in-house de-siliconizing process, waste becomes useful raw material. UPM’s network for Recovered Paper (RCP) Sourcing provides the logistical solution to collect the materials. The spent liner is accumulated and stored in big bags at printers’ or packers’ premises, and transported either to local hubs or directly to the UPM Plattling mill. At Plattling, the liner is processed into pulp used as raw material for UPM paper products.

Call to action for printers and packers

The process of spent paper liner collection starts with an assessment of the packer’s activities to identify the most viable method for storage and collection. As this takes shape, assistance is given to optimize material flows to separate the liner from other waste.

‘Drawing on UPM’s extensive RCP sourcing network, and significant resources UPM-wide, we are able to transform waste into a resource,’ said Federico Dossena, manager, pre-consumer Recovered Paper Sourcing at UPM. ‘This is a call to action for the commercial and environmental sustainability of the industry, and we urge label printers to contact us and also to inform the label end-users about the direct availability of this service. Label printers may also set up as intermediaries, collecting paper liner waste from the customers while also channeling their own liner waste into the program.’

Paper liner recovery through RafCycle moderates waste disposal costs for packers and brand owners, contributing to a sustainable future for the self-adhesive labeling industry. All paper release liner is accepted, regardless of the color or origin of manufacture.

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