Page 18 - Packaging News May-June 2021

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SUSTAINABILITY www.packagingnews.com.au | May-June 2021
New tech saves liner from landfill
Labelmakers has secured rights to use the globally patented RecuLiner technology in Australia and New Zealand to create a local solution for recycling glassine liner from pressure-sensitive labels, which would
Lotherwise go to landfill. Lindy Hughson reports.
RECYCLING of glassine liner is a To deliver the solution in this mar- global problem and there are only ket, Labelmakers has entered exclu- a few locations around the world sive and long-term manufacturing with the technology required to arrangements by licensing the tech- remove the silicone from the glass- nology to fellow Australian business ine paper. This means that glassine Enviroflex Commercial, a leading liner has historically been ban- provider, producer, and installer of
ished to landfill. insulation products.
Labelmakers Group. “We expect to start onboarding customers in July this year with scale-up planned over the next 12-24 months.”
He adds, “This local manufactur- ing arrangement will kick-start a new recycling opportunity in Australia, with job creation and landfill diversion as the core of the program. Labelmakers will be focus- ing on the rollout across New Zealand in due course.”
The collection of spent glassine liner from customer sites will be man- aged through a newly created depart- ment of the group, called Labelmakers Liner Recycling Services.
Enviroflex CEO Felicia Richardson says, “There are so many exciting facets to this new partnership but from a scale-up perspective, the insulation channels to market already exists so we don’t have the time lag associated with developing a new market or customer.
“We intend to commence manufac- ture in July 2021, which means Labelmakers’ customers will be able to start to redirect their spent liner in the near term, and well in advance of the deadline for meeting the 2025 National Packaging Target dead- lines,” Richardson adds.
Technology innovator RecuLiner says, “We are excited that our technol- ogy can help Labelmakers achieve its sustainability targets and trust this will be an example of excellence for the global label industry.”
In 2018, Labelmakers appointed a dedicated group sustainability man- ager, Damian Smyth, to lead the group’s sustainability agenda and the company says this announcement is one of many it will be making over the next few months. ■
To date, liner recovery has focused on collection and exporting to over- seas markets, which Labelmakers says is “heavily emissions intensive”. Tonnes of waste pressure sensitive material go into landfill each year.
In Australia alone, and at an indus- try level, it is estimated that this translates to 10,000 tonnes of landfill associated with pressure-sensitive labels, according to Labelmakers.
Labelmakers says it has long held the position that a local solution is the only real solution and, to this end, has secured the RecuLiner patented technology for the region.
The RecuLiner technology allows the conversion of glassine liner into insulation products for the commer- cial and residential building indus- try, with scope for other market appli- cations as well.
“This is exciting news for Labelmakers Group, RecuLiner, Enviroflex and the entire label indus- try because this aligns us and our cus- tomers with APCO’s 2025 National Packaging Targets for recycling and re-use of packaging materials,” says Adam Bamford, managing director of
ABOVE: Enviroflex
CEO Felicia Richardson and Labelmakers group sustainability manager, Damian Smyth.
INSET: The RecuLiner technology allows the conversion of glassine liner into insulation products.
This local manufacturing arrangement will kick-start a new recycling opportunity in Australia, with job creation and landfill diversion as the core of the program.”
— Adam Bamford, MD, Labelmakers Group.