The 2020 FINAT Label Awards Ceremony, for the first time ever, broadcasted live on Thursday, 26 November, 16.00 CET from the FINAT premises in The Hague, revealed the winners of the 2020 FINAT Label Competition.

Updated version of ECHA guidances on Brexit for UK companies.

The EU Council published a set of conclusions on the Farm-to-Fork Strategy, encouraging the harmonization of FCM rules and calling for a mandatory declaration of compliance for all materials.

The first deliverables of the Circular Plastics Alliance were released: a work plan on design-for-recycling of plastic products, and state-of-play on collected and sorted plastic waste, and an R&D agenda for circular plastics.

Life cycle analysis of beverage materials revealed highest environmental impact for glass bottles; lowest impact for recycled aluminium containers for pressurized drinks, Tetra Paks for juices, and cartons for milk; calls for embracing reusable containers for everyday use.

A new guide for packaging innovation introduces strategies to eliminate, reuse and recirculate packaging materials, including an extensive example database, and provides resources for stakeholder implementation.

Despite the unprecedented circumstances caused by Covid-19 and the cancellation of physical meetings, FINAT continues to provide members with valuable information via virtual events. This also applies to the annual Label Competition which was upheld as it encourages printers/converters to extend the technical and quality boundaries of the self-adhesive and narrow web flexible packaging industries. The competition furthermore promotes the use of label and narrow web techniques on a worldwide basis to the benefit of the label and associated industries in general. Due to travel restrictions, the judging process took place in a different setting in August, but this did not impede the judge to select the winners. Now, for the first time ever, FINAT is pleased to recognize the winners in a live 2020 FINAT Label Awards Ceremony which will take on 26 November, 4 PM CET and is open to all interested parties to watch.

FINAT, the European self-adhesive labelling industry association, is pleased to formally announce the launch of ‘CELAB-Europe’, a significant new initiative designed to create a circular economy for self-adhesive label materials in Europe. By establishing a representative value-chain organisation, CELAB-Europe will work to identify and collectively scale recycling and re-use solutions for the self-adhesive label liner and matrix materials. The initiative aims to develop a sustainable and circular business model for over 75% of the used liner and matrix materials in Europe by 2025.

Today, the European Commission adopted the EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability. The Strategy is the first step towards a zero pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment announced in the European Green Deal. The Strategy will boost innovation for safe and sustainable chemicals, and increase protection of human health and the environment against hazardous chemicals.

European Court of Auditors reviews EU response to growing plastic waste and regulation enacted to address it; warns EU member states not to underestimate challenge of achieving 50% recycling rate by 2025; new reporting rules, restrictions on plastic waste exports set to lower current recycling rates