Self-adhesive labels have contributed
significant benefits to packaging; and their versatility, cleanliness, and
variability have made them firm favourites in many key fmcg market sectors – on
foods (both as primary and secondary product labels and for ‘priceweigh’ applications
and other variable information print); on personal and homecare products;
and, particularly, on beverages.
The beverage boom
The global growth in premium beers has proved
a dynamic self-adhesive label market around the globe in recent years; and wines
– both premium cuvées and bulk supermarket qualities – are toby ay enjoying the
eyecatching on-shelf appeal that short- or long-run self-adhesive labels can
create, both by the traditional print processes and by today’s high-quality
digital label print. This flexibility has made ‘limited editions’ a practical
possibility. ‘Fashion’ soft drinks, such as smoothies, juices, and CSDs
(carbonated soft drinks) are also popular users of the self-adhesive label,
which delivers a variety of innovative finishes and effects on a wide choice of
label face materials – including textured papers, foils, and clear films (which
give the favoured ‘no label look’ on a clear container).
A designer’s dream
The unique self-adhesive laminate also makes
it possible to diecut exceptionally complex label shapes on press – a
designer’s dream – and to apply multiple labels (front, back, neckstrap, etc)
in just one pass on the packaging line. Finally, track-and-trace, product authentication,
and tamper-evident features can be an intrinsic part of a self-adhesive label.
Sustainability issues
As a key contributor to the global packaging
industry, the self-adhesive label industry is as committed to the cause of
sustainability as all its peers. However, it faces some unique challenges in
the context of sustainability – in relation to the industry’s extremely long,
complex, and specialised value chain.
At the heart of a self-adhesive label is the
‘sandwich’ of a face material, adhesive, release coating, and release
liner. In itself, this is a combination of many different
components, to which must be added the printing inks and other on-press
processes that create the finished label, ready for automatic application to a
product. No single level of the value chain can offer a full and detailed
picture of the process of delivering a self-adhesive label; but, despite
this complexity, the self-adhesive label industry must present a single,
united profile if it is to be able to communicate with, and partner, the brand
owners, the retailers, and ultimately the consumers in the environmental arena.
It makes sense for an industry association
such as Finat, which represents
the whole label production value chain -- raw material suppliers, labelstock
coaters and laminators, and label converters -- to take on that responsibility.
For a number of years, Finat has been creating
and updating industry-standard performance test methods, and – with an
increasing number of sister organisations around the world – is currently
engaged in advancing a detailed formal agenda for step-by-step actions to make
our industry ‘greener’. We are also actively supporting a raft of initiatives
in the recycling arena.
Environmental initiatives
This in itself may not sound like a major set
of challenges – but, again, the value chain is complex, and there is a
proliferation of environmental initiatives in the broad print/packaging
manufacturing context, at many levels. There are the environmental management
systems like ISO 14001, Lean Six Sigma, and the US-based Tag and Label
Manufacturers Institute’s industry-specific ‘LIFE’ system (‘Label Initiative
For the Environment’). Certification to environmental sourcing standards – like
FSC and PEFC for papers – are other possible pathways. Brand owners’ and end
users’ own environmental standards for their suppliers, like the Wal-Mart
Supplier Sustainability Assessment, add further complexity.
While the raw material suppliers and the
major coater/laminators represent, in the main, manufacturers at a global
scale, the self-adhesive label converters themselves are mostly
small-to-medium-sized enterprises for whom such additional agendas are
difficult to support. Nevertheless, Finat member companies across the value chain are,
individually, actively delivering technology solutions to reduce waste all
round and improve their carbon footprint; to be REACH-compliant, particularly
in relation to adhesives and coatings; to explore new label and release
liner substrates and adhesive technologies; and to use thinner materials all
round without compromising performance.
A single industry profile
But there are limits to which individual
companies operating in a competitive business environment can go in meeting the
needs of the ‘three Ps’: people, planet, and profit. So, as I see it, there is
a distinct rôle for an association such as FINAT in the label sustainability
arena: to combine the aspirations of the many levels of the value chain
into a single agenda, and to represent all its members (within the broader
context of the global packaging industry) to the ultimate buyers of its
products – the brand owners, retailers, and consumers.
The Global Packaging Project
Unquestionably, the brand owners and
retailers have established an outstanding sustainability platform, in the
form of the Consumer Goods Forum’s Global Packaging Project. It is bringing
together the world’s leading manufacturers and retailers, along with their
packaging suppliers at every level and related industry associations, as a
single group of people with a single agenda. This group has already defined
what is now the accepted framework for informed debate on sustainability
concerns throughout the supply chain: the Global Protocol on
Packaging Sustainability. Through its common professional sustainability
language that transcends the boundaries of commercial advantage, the GPPS is
facilitating a meaningful dialogue between customers and suppliers on
appropriate parameters to be used to measure environmental progress. Finat is an active
supporter, representing the interests of both the thousands of label converters
in Europe, and further afield, who provide finished labels for the end users,
as well as its valued supplier company members. I personally believe that if any
initiative will deliver a real blueprint for the optimal combination of
environmental-friendliness and fit-for-purpose packaging, it will be this
worldwide forum of suppliers and users.
EU Packaging Waste Directive
At a regional level, self-adhesive labels
must meet the requirements of the EU Packaging Waste Directive, which is
driving change in Europe through legislation and punitive levies for
non-conformance. Here, in the self-adhesive label industry, waste management,
recycling, and recyclability are priority issues in relation to one particular
part of the self-adhesive label laminate – the release liner. Release liner is
the ‘hero’ of the self-adhesive label conversion and automatic application
processes, delivering superb handling characteristics on the printing press and
in label application. However, it is also a perceived problem for the recycling
lobby since, once a self-adhesive label has been automatically applied to the
product, the release liner that delivered it is effectively redundant, its
purpose fulfilled. The latest revision to the Packaging Waste Directive in its
final draft that was recently submitted to the Council of Ministers is
consistent with Finat’s definition of used
liner as process waste as opposed to packaging waste – but this
is not the end of the story. In individual national legislation in a number of
countries around Europe – including The Netherlands and the UK -- spent release
liner has been defined as packaging waste at the end of its working
life, and is therefore the subject of a financial levy. A final decision from
the EU is expected this summer and, whichever way it goes, it will have a
significant effect on the market’s perception of self-adhesive labelling. It
is, however, Finat’s opinion that,
without its empowering release liner, the self-adhesive label’s overarching
package of benefits -- versatility, flexibility, accurate, clean, fast
label dispensing (sometimes in multiples in the one machine pass) -- would not
be achievable.
Release liner recyclability
Whatever the final outcome in European waste
legislation, it is being proved in many arenas that release liner, both paper-
and film-based, is recyclable, despite its release coating. Finat is driving and
supporting practical initiatives to create viable waste collection and
recycling schemes, which are becoming increasingly commercially active. I
encourage brand owners and retailers, as well as their label converters, to
join together and buy in to what could be a real game-changer for the
self-adhesive label industry by participating in formal liner waste collection
schemes.
Paper release liner base remains the choice
for the vast majority of label applications, and there is a developing choice
of solutions for its recycling and re-use. Film-based release liners are,
however, also gaining market share today; and collecting and recycling these
relatively high-cost liners – and perhaps, in the process, creating an
additional revenue stream -- is an option today. ‘Clean’ used PET liner is a
highly-desirable commodity – and it is a priority to develop a supply chain
structure to make collection and recycling simple, financially
attractive, and effective for all concerned in the process.
Waste collection
Liner waste, ultimately, is generated at the
contract packer’s, brand owner’s, or retailer’s premises, and is therefore
largely out of the hands of the label production chain. Finat’s prime task,
therefore, within the Global Packaging Project and other packaging industry
initiatives, is to make end users aware of how they can link with their label
suppliers to deliver sustainability in terms of liner waste collection for
recycling and reuse.
As well as confronting, managing, and
addressing major issues like this, Finat continues to provide
a ‘green umbrella’ for its member companies in terms of ongoing educational
support on good manufacturing and environmental health and safety
practice. Some of the topics we currently embrace are ink migration
and set-off, solvent usage, safe UV curing, and other pressroom issues -- with
the interests of the users (particularly in the food and beverage arena) a
central concern.
A partnership for success
Packaging buyers, brand managers, and
designers are all increasingly aware of the need to sell products in an
environment that is demanding less material and energy usage and an improved
carbon footprint. Self-adhesive labels can help in this pursuit, contributing,
additionally, unrivalled versatility and shelf appeal. They are rightly major
participants in the broad global packaging industry agenda committed to
developing truly sustainable solutions, in partnership with contract packers,
the brand owners, and retailers.
This is a genuine opportunity to achieve
significant progress in managing our environment.
Finat, founded in Paris in 1958 and
headquartered in The Hague (The Netherlands), is the world-wide
association for manufacturers of self-adhesive labels and related products and
services. With 600 members in over 50 countries around the world, Finat has
much to offer to label converters and all suppliers to the labeling industry in
terms of information exchange and the opportunity to network internationally.
