4 March 2021: Labelmakers Group is pleased to announce it has secured the rights for the worldwide patented RecuLiner technology for Australia and New Zealand. This technology allows the conversion of glassine liner into insulation products for the commercial and residential building industry, with scope for market applications outside of the building industry.
Having secured the RecuLiner patented technology for our region we have entered into exclusive and long-term manufacturing arrangements by licensing the technology to fellow Australian business Enviroflex Commercial who are a leading provider, producer and installer of insulation products. This is a very exciting day for Labelmakers Group, RecuLiner, Enviroflex and the entire label industry because this aligns us and our customers with APCO’s 2025 Packaging Guidelines for recycling and re-use of packaging materials. We expect to start onboarding customers in July this year with scale-up planned over the next 12 to 24 months.
Recycling of glassine liner is a global problem and there are only a few locations around the world with the technology required to remove the silicone from the glassine paper. This means that glassine liner has historically been banished to landfill. In Australia alone and at an industry level, we estimate that this translates to 10,000 tonnes of landfill associated with pressure-sensitive labels. As a result of this, liner recovery has to date focused on collection and export to overseas markets, which is heavily emissions intensive. Labelmakers has maintained its position that a local solution is the only real solution. In 2018 we appointed a dedicated Group Sustainability Manager to lead our sustainability agenda and this announcement is one of many we will be making over the next few months.
RecuLiner says “Labelmakers clearly understands the importance of taking action to deliver real sustainability solutions for their customers. We are excited that our technology can help Labelmakers achieve its sustainability targets and trust this will be an example of excellence for the global label industry.”
This local manufacturing arrangement will kick-start a new recycling opportunity in Australia with job creation and landfill diversion as the core of the program. Labelmakers will be focusing on the roll- out across New Zealand in due course.
The collection of spent glassine liner from customer sites will be managed through a newly created department of the Group, called Labelmakers Liner Recycling Services.
Enviroflex CEO, Felicia Richardson says “there are so many exciting facets to this new partnership but from a scale-up perspective, the insulation channels to market already exists so we don’t have the time lag associated with developing a new market or customer. We intend to commence manufacture in July 2021, meaning Labelmakers’ customers will be able to start to redirect their spent liner in the near term, and well in advance of the deadline for meeting APCO’s 2025 Packaging Guidelines”.
Richardson goes on to say that “to date, there has been widespread interest from the architectural and construction industry to adopt more sustainable building materials with a local manufacturing footprint, so this new glassine liner insulation product certainly ticks all the boxes”.
In due course we will be inviting Expressions of Interest from all customers to utilise this new liner insulation product within their own facilities to assist with noise and thermal insulation requirements. Commercial applications such as this will support volume growth and in turn increase diversion of liner waste.
Over the next few months, we will be sharing videos, program details and product samples so you can see this sustainability initiative come to life.
For further information about the program including landfill replacement costs, please contact your Labelmakers Group Account Manager. For new customer enquiries please contact Labelmakers Group Head of Sales & Marketing Jessica Walters.
