Recycling Paper Label Liners, West Coast

OVERVIEW

This document gives a snapshot of the current paper label liner recycling options on the West Coast based on our company’s recent inquiry. By the end of the document, readers should have a good image of the challenges to recycling paper liner. Aside from offering a recycling program for our customers; there is also a call to action to create data that informs government Institution, Commercial and Industrial waste policy in the form of a working group.

 

MATERIAL OPTIONS

Traditionally pressure sensitive label rolls require a release liner in order to be die cut, shipped in rolls, and machine applied at high speed/tension. Two options are widely available to customers; one is a primarily virgin paper or fibre liner, while the plastic version is conventionally Polyethylene (PET). Labels and label matrix (the die cut negative space between labels) is not currently recyclable because of it’s multi layered construction with adhesives, inks and lamination. Liners on the other hand are relatively free of contamination after label application and so represents an opportunity for collection and recycling.

 

Paper

In order to provide tensile consistency and strength in application, paper rolls require high amounts of virgin fibre. Silicone is applied to the surface to create a non-stick coating for which labels can be released in the application process. Silicone is naturally derived from quartz or gravel, yet the processing requires high heat from petroleum furnaces to extract.

 

Plastic

Most commonly, virgin plastic is used to create PET liners.

 

Linerless

For point of sale applications or industrial food packaging, direct thermal linerless labels is an option. A silicone coating is applied to the surface of the label in order to create a non-stick surface for the adhesive backing. Since there is no liner, this means die cutting occurs at applications which is limited to square or rectangle cuts. Direct thermal also means you are restricted to black surface printing.

 

PFAS

We have been assured by two of our main suppliers that our current stock options do not contain any intentionally added PFAS in label liners.

 

Innovation

There is a company here that claims to have created a recyclable label liner. The problem is this is not scaled to the quantities that printers need. There are options for post industrial and commercial recycled content liners out there; however, since this isn’t part of the consumer end product, there is little interest.

 

RECYCLING AND END OF LIFE

 

Incineration

Some regions may have access to waste to energy facilities, usually in the form of a cement plant which uses the packaging waste as an alternative fuel source for their kilns. Municipal incineration waste to energy facilities are available to power homes locally. Both options usually have regulations for filtering exhaust and particles released into the atmosphere. Unfortunately it is impossible to filter 100% of fumes and chemicals which can be released and reduce local air quality.

 

Landfill

This option opts to keep the carbon and chemicals locked in the ground to slowly degrade over hundreds of years. Unfortunately, this isn’t entirely accurate as liner waste becomes part of the aerobic and anaerobic waste system which can contribute to the creation leachate (ground water contamination issues) and landfill gas (LFG). LFG consists of approximately 50% methane and 50% carbon. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), landfills are one of the top producers of methane in the USA.

 

According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), methane is 80 times worse than carbon emissions in the first 20 years of being released, whereas carbon has a much longer-lasting effect. Modern landfills do mitigate leachate migration with a clay or plastic lined pits. Capture systems are also in place for LFG which have been sited by EPA to capture 60 - 90% depending on the system design and effectiveness.

 

RECYCLING

 

City

Paper liners, as we know have a silicone coating which unfortunately prevents them from being recycled through curb-side paper programs.

 

Private Companies

Terra-Cycle offers programs for unique and hard to recycle packaging and products internationally. There are costs associated with most of their programs, and their website claims that they do not divert via landfill or incineration.

 

Commercial Recycling

In Metro Vancouver there is no commercial drop off at landfill or transfer stations for recycling offered by government agencies. Instead private haulers are used to collect commercial, office and consumer recycling to MRF’s. Alternatively for more consistent sources of manufacturing waste, companies can often work directly with material recyclers.

Paper Mills

This happened to be the case when driving the conversation further upstream. After speaking with our label suppliers and local recycling resources we realized there was no system set up to recycle this material either locally or industrywide.

 

We spoke with a mill in Washington State who said they could maybe use some of the fibre to make an end-product such as multi-layered paper board; however, they would most likely ship the material over-seas. They said there just isn’t anything set up on the West Coast to handle this material.

 

It turns out that in order to recycle fibre label liner coated with silicone, a mill must have the right tooling to filter it out. This also means that for other mills, if they don’t have a constant large stream of liner, there is no incentive to pay for this technology.

 

After searching further abroad, we managed to find a mill who was capable of recycling large amounts of fibre label liner. The Sustana Group located in Wisconsin, is no small distance. We had to ask ourselves, is sending waste across the country more economical than burying or burning? Does supporting the recycling industry justify the transportation impacts? The answer for now is yes. Especially since a portion of the fibre turns circular with more label liners being created for our industry.

 

PILOT PROJECT

 

Lush Cosmetics NA had approached our company to work with us on finding a solution for recycling liners. Once we found a mill that was willing to accept our material, we could start working on logistics and creating a pilot project with them. Lush NA uses machine and hand  application and so this meant receiving a mix of loose and rolled liner material in recycled plastic Gaylords used in their manufacturing. Our company truck would pick up local, full Gaylords, and return empty ones.

 

Baler

Once we stockpiled enough material, we would use our 60” standard baler. Sandwiching the material with cardboard helped keep the liner together once straps were applied. These models can handle up to 1,500lbs cardboard or newsprint, unfortunately due to the mixed density, we could only get an average of 500lbs. Not only are these bales smaller than the standard 60” x 48” x 30” dimensions, they also become rounded with tension. This rounded top creates another challenge in that pallets cannot safely be stacked for transportation. We were told by mills that this is common and even a challenge for them with much more sophisticated balers.

 

Storage

Until there is enough material to be baled, this material can take up a lot of valuable storage space. Again since bales cannot be stacked, this creates challenges for covered outdoor storage. Additional storage could be created outside with rental of a shipping container if space permits.

Shipping

The challenge of stack-ability again creates and increased cost for shipment. For the pilot we shared the shipping costs 50/50. Costs on average were $260CDN per pallet, not including our own labour to process the bales, straps and pallets. If available, we recommend the use of rail and/or intermodal to reduce transport costs and carbon emissions.

 

WHERE ARE WE NOW?

More recently, we have brought suppliers back into the conversation around shared ownership of label liner waste. Their solution is to pay for the transportation costs of a fully loaded container in the form of rebates. Their only stipulation has been a certain percentage of the liners must be their own, a minimum 20ft truck with Gaylords stacked two high and min. 400lbs each.

 

The use of cardboard Gaylords poses additional challenges in that they are expensive and they run the risk of falling over or collapsing during transport. Additionally, reaching the density required with loose material alone might be difficult.

 

On the other hand, their are some solutions that come with this method. One being that customers can pack their own Gaylords, and we no longer need to bale. We spread out storage issues by asking customers to hold their full Gaylords until we have enough collectively to send a full truck load.

 

Program Status

As of the time of publishing, we are still testing out if cardboard Gaylords can hold 400lbs of liner and be stacked safely two high. Once this has been successful we will be opening up this program up to all customers. If you wish to be notified when this happens please email us here.

 

Leads

Lastly, we are looking into a recycler possibly in California who might be able to take this material. In addition, if the reader knows of any contacts we welcome them!

 

OPPORTUNITY FOR SYSTEMS CHANGE

 

Extended Producer Responsibility

The Government of British Columbia has a lot of experience with Extended Producer Responsibility programs starting in 1994 with paint returns.

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is a policy approach in which a producer’s responsibility, physical and/or financial, for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of a product’s life cycle. EPR shifts responsibility upstream in the product life cycle to the producer (i.e. brand owners, first importers or manufacturers) and away from municipalities and general taxpayers (Gov. of Canada).

After speaking with a representative of the BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy team, we discovered that there is no current plan in place for regulating commercial or industrial waste. As seen in the diagram below, the timeline points to 2025 to “Evaluate Industrial, Commercial and Institutional (ICI) packaging and paper.”

Working Group

Instead of waiting till 2025 to be part of the evaluation and engagement process, our company proposes a working group be created for a Paper Liner Commercial Producer Responsibility Program. Stakeholders such as other printshop’s, suppliers, material recovery facilities, mills etc are all welcome to participate.

 

This experience and results will be shared especially to inform Ministry and local government towards fast tracking/prioritizing their own solid waste policies for institutes, commercial and industrial companies.

 

This project will likely be ongoing in some form or another with participants likely coming and going as required. If you are interested in participating in this group please contact us at anytime here or scan the below QR code.

 

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