UPM Specialty Papers helps enhance circular economy in self-adhesive label industry


UPM Specialty Papers joins CELAB-Europe to promote the development of a sustainable and circular business model in the self-adhesive label industry; the target is to ensure that 75% of the used liner and matrix materials in Europe are recycled in a circular fashion by 2025.

“As part of our eco-design approach, UPM actively looks for innovative ways to recycle our products at the end of their life. UPM Specialty Papers is excited to support industry-level initiatives to promote circularity in the self-adhesive label business,” highlights Mikko Rissanen, Director, Technology at UPM Specialty Papers.

UPM Specialty Papers first took a step towards building a circular economy in the self-adhesive label industry by introducing UPM LinerLoopTM in 2018. UPM LinerLoop is a unique concept for recycling release liners; collected release liners are desiliconised and used to produce new high-performance release liner base papers.

“Global brands and our customers want labels that support their goal for more sustainable packaging. Release liner recycling is one way to meet these goals. However, efficient collection of used release liners has been the industry’s biggest barrier to making the transition to a circular economy. We look forward to developing best practices together with other CELAB-Europe members, and promoting these globally in the next stage”.