02-04-13
Member news
Recycling makes vehicle fleet carbon-neutral
Reprocessing of label release liner:
• Large-scale reprocessing of paper release liner for labels effectively reduces CO2 emissions.
• Self-adhesive technology specialist HERMA, for instance, offset the carbon of its entire fleet of 74 cars in this way in 2012.
• Potential savings of large consumers of labels are many times greater.
Silicone coated release liner is encountered wherever labels are applied, and in large quantities in the consumer goods, food and logistics industries for example. Although conventionally discarded as general refuse, it is an ideal candidate for reprocessing and thus capable of protecting the climate. Last year, simply by collecting and recycling its residual release liner, self-adhesive technology specialist HERMA effectively put its entire fleet of 74 cars on a carbon-neutral footing. The certificate issued by the Cycle4Green organisation C4G (www.cycle4green.eu) shows that HERMA committed around 185 metric tons of surplus liner from its self-adhesive material production to a special recycling process in 2012. Thanks to the cooperation of C4G and the paper manufacturer Lenzing (Austria), raw materials are recovered and used to produce new label paper and release liner, both of which are used by HERMA. Compared with recycling, manufacturing the same quantity of these products from virgin fibre would have increased CO2 emissions by 428 metric tons. "Last year, HERMA's entire fleet generated about 410 ton of carbon dioxide, based on the vehicles' imputed mileage and realistic average consumption figures. We can therefore claim a carbon-neutral footprint for the 74 HERMA cars. Given that we produce only a fairly small quantity of waste liner – because it is a constituent of our self-adhesive materials, achieving carbon neutrality is an impressive achievement," explains Dr. Thomas Baumgärtner, managing director of HERMA and head of the Self-adhesive Materials division. "It illustrates that even relatively small-scale recycling can make a big impact."
Kind to the climate with no cost implications
The technical challenge of recycling silicone coated paper release liner was resolved only about four years ago. Until then, it had been impossible to recover the silicone economically. In 2010, HERMA became the first self-adhesive material specialist in the industry to participate in the C4G initiative, which was established specifically for this type of recycling. The quantity of release liner collected by C4G throughout Europe in 2012 reduced CO2 emissions by around 7,000 metric tons. Across the EU, the annual consumption of silicone coated release liner stands at about 360,000 tons. The largest portion is attributable to companies that apply labels. "The potential CO2 savings are therefore enormous," insists Dr. Baumgärtner. "That's why we take every opportunity to encourage our self-adhesive material customers, namely the label printers, to point their own customers towards the C4G recycling initiative. It makes good sense for both the climate and the participating companies, which would otherwise have to bear the cost of disposing of the release liner."
• Large-scale reprocessing of paper release liner for labels effectively reduces CO2 emissions.
• Self-adhesive technology specialist HERMA, for instance, offset the carbon of its entire fleet of 74 cars in this way in 2012.
• Potential savings of large consumers of labels are many times greater.
Silicone coated release liner is encountered wherever labels are applied, and in large quantities in the consumer goods, food and logistics industries for example. Although conventionally discarded as general refuse, it is an ideal candidate for reprocessing and thus capable of protecting the climate. Last year, simply by collecting and recycling its residual release liner, self-adhesive technology specialist HERMA effectively put its entire fleet of 74 cars on a carbon-neutral footing. The certificate issued by the Cycle4Green organisation C4G (www.cycle4green.eu) shows that HERMA committed around 185 metric tons of surplus liner from its self-adhesive material production to a special recycling process in 2012. Thanks to the cooperation of C4G and the paper manufacturer Lenzing (Austria), raw materials are recovered and used to produce new label paper and release liner, both of which are used by HERMA. Compared with recycling, manufacturing the same quantity of these products from virgin fibre would have increased CO2 emissions by 428 metric tons. "Last year, HERMA's entire fleet generated about 410 ton of carbon dioxide, based on the vehicles' imputed mileage and realistic average consumption figures. We can therefore claim a carbon-neutral footprint for the 74 HERMA cars. Given that we produce only a fairly small quantity of waste liner – because it is a constituent of our self-adhesive materials, achieving carbon neutrality is an impressive achievement," explains Dr. Thomas Baumgärtner, managing director of HERMA and head of the Self-adhesive Materials division. "It illustrates that even relatively small-scale recycling can make a big impact."
Kind to the climate with no cost implications
The technical challenge of recycling silicone coated paper release liner was resolved only about four years ago. Until then, it had been impossible to recover the silicone economically. In 2010, HERMA became the first self-adhesive material specialist in the industry to participate in the C4G initiative, which was established specifically for this type of recycling. The quantity of release liner collected by C4G throughout Europe in 2012 reduced CO2 emissions by around 7,000 metric tons. Across the EU, the annual consumption of silicone coated release liner stands at about 360,000 tons. The largest portion is attributable to companies that apply labels. "The potential CO2 savings are therefore enormous," insists Dr. Baumgärtner. "That's why we take every opportunity to encourage our self-adhesive material customers, namely the label printers, to point their own customers towards the C4G recycling initiative. It makes good sense for both the climate and the participating companies, which would otherwise have to bear the cost of disposing of the release liner."