UPM, Vertaris to develop release liner recycling in Europe

LONDON (Scrap Monster): UPM Paper Business Group, the world’s largest user of recovered paper in the production of graphic papers and the French company Vertaris have teamed up to develop a sustainable release liner recycling concept in Europe.

Release liner is the siliconised backing paper that is an essential part of self-adhesive label stock until the printed label is taken into use. Today, the majority of the used siliconised liner is incinerated. The co-operation of UPM and Vertaris provides a more sustainable solution to recycle the used liner back into pulp and paper.

Vertaris has developed a technology for de-siliconising paper-based release liner at their state-of-the-art plant in Voreppe, France. “Working together with Vertaris, UPM’s Label business, UPM Raflatac, will expand their labelstock waste management concept RafCycle to cover paper release liners in Europe”, states Erkki Nyberg, Director, Business Development of UPM Engineered Materials. The recycled liners will be processed into pulp at Vertaris’ Voreppe plant, and the pulp will be used in paper production at UPM paper mills.

“At UPM, our aim is to minimise solid waste and maximise the reuse of raw materials. With our unique position in the labelling market as a producer of label papers and self-adhesive labelstock as well as the world’s largest recovered paper user in graphic papers, we believe that this recycling concept is a perfect fit to our portfolio. It is a true example of our Biofore thinking, which among other things focuses on value creation through innovation and sustainability”, says Marko Haveri, Portfolio Manager of UPM Paper Products, R&D.

“Both Vertaris and UPM have a strong emphasis on sustainable products and production,” says Vertaris’ President François Vessiere. “Vertaris brings the technology and UPM its leadership position and business integration to this co-operation, which will work for the benefit of the whole labeling industry by offering sustainable recycling solution for paper-based release liners”.

UPM leads the integration of bio and forest industries into a new, sustainable and innovation-driven future. The company’s products are made of renewable raw materials and are recyclable. UPM consists of three Business Groups: Energy and Pulp, Paper, and Engineered Materials. The Group employs around 22,000 people and it has production plants in 15 countries. In 2010, UPM’s sales amounted to EUR 8.9 billion. UPM’s shares are listed on the Helsinki stock exchange.

UPM Paper Business Group is the world’s largest user of recovered paper in the production of graphic papers. Recycled fibre represents 30% of all fibre raw materials used in UPM’s paper production. Annually UPM consumes around 3 million tonnes of recovered paper in newsprint and in uncoated and coated magazine paper production.

UPM Raflatac, part of UPM’s Engineered Materials Business Group, is one of the world’s leading suppliers of self-adhesive labelstock materials. UPM Raflatac has a global service network consisting of 11 factories on five continents and a broad network of sales offices and slitting and distribution terminals worldwide. UPM Raflatac employs 2,400 people and made sales of approximately EUR 1.1 billion (USD 1.5 billion) in 2010.

UPM Raflatac’s waste management concept RafCycle aims for creating a sustainable recycling solution for the by-products generated throughout the whole labelstock lifecycle. The paper and plastic generated as by-products of the different labelstock production processes have previously been collected to be reused as raw material for UPM ProFi wood plastic composite products and in other sustainable waste recovery processes such as energy generation. The co-operation with Vertaris will expand the RafCycle concept to cover also release liner recycling into pulp and paper.

Vertaris is a newly created 100% recycled pulp and graphic paper producer. It has a high end recycled pulp capacity of close to 200 000 tonnes at the Voreppe plant near Grenoble, France. Vertaris produces also a variety of recycled graphic and cut-size papers.