Last month, we reported about booming demand for self-adhesive labelstock in the first half of 2021 in response to the general economic recovery in Europe, especially in the second quarter. Throughout the past 12 months, we reported about supply chain disruptions associated with the ‘perfect storm’ of Covid-related factors like excess demand for essential goods, delays in raw materials deliveries and labour shortages due to worker illness and lockdown measures.

An article on food-grade recycled plastics highlights some issues for these materials, and a Citizens' Initiative aims to introduce EU-harmonized DRS and EPR schemes for plastic packaging

Eco-Score is a label for sustainability in food products based on LCA and including the environmental impact of packaging

After a relatively modest start in 2021, labelstock demand in Europe boomed in the second quarter. Compared to the same quarter of 2020, consumption of self-adhesive label materials in Europe was 9.3% higher. This is all the more remarkable when considering that label demand already peaked in Q2 2020 with an annual growth rate of 8% due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The demand peak in the spring of 2021 correlated with the general economic recovery in Europe as demonstrated by the 13.2% growth of the EU economy compared to Q2 in 2020.

The Dutch institute KIDV released a web tool to assess the sustainability of packaging based on recyclability, circularity and environmental impact

There is a long shared history and partnership between FINAT and the Lejeune office that dates back to 1970.

A line-up of high-profile speakers from across the label and package printing industry are set to take part in the Label Congress 2021 educational program that will run alongside the main exhibition on the first two days of the show.

As per 16 July 2021, the FINAT Label Competition is on the list of recognised awards programmes eligible to participate at the WorldStar Global Packaging Awards. FINAT decided to apply for qualification after having received requests from converter members that wished to enter this global competition.

It is with pleasure that we present to you the 15th edition of the FINAT RADAR, our 6-monthly review of the state of the European self-adhesive labels and narrow web markets.

The FINAT Calendar for 2021 is halfway. Normally around this time, preparations for Labelexpo Europe in September would be in full swing, but now that the show has been moved to April 2022, 2021 will be the second year in succession without hardly any physical interaction.