Forest industry group UPM has announced a cooperation agreement for release liner recovery, with the French subsidiary of Aliplast, an Italian company specialising in the collection and treatment of recovered plastic films.
The new partnership expands Aliplast’s recycling services to polypropylene (PP) and paper-based release liners through UPM Raflatac’s existing RafCycle waste management and recycling concept for self-adhesive labelstock by-products.
“Aliplast now collects, sorts and distributes all types of release liner to different recycling processes, avoiding landfill or incineration,” the Finland-based company says.
Polypropylene liners, including UPM Raflatac’s ProLiner PP30, are re-used as raw material in the manufacture of wood-plastic composite products at the UPM ProFi factory in Bruchsal, Germany, while other wrapping films are recycled into various packaging products by Aliplast Italy.
Paper-based release liners are also collected by Aliplast for fibre re-use: the recovered paper liners are re-pulped and de-siliconized, and the pulp is used for papermaking at UPM’s paper mills.
Aliplast makes regular collections from self-adhesive label end-users such as drinks bottlers and companies from the food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, directing waste liner products to its two sorting centres near Strasbourg and Lyon.
“Through the partnership with Aliplast, UPM Raflatac has extended the reach of its RafCycle concept to even more label end-users,” the company says.
Part of UPM’s Engineered Materials business group, UPM Raflatac is one of the world’s leading suppliers of self-adhesive label materials, with a global service network consisting of 15 factories on six continents and a broad network of sales offices and slitting and distribution terminals worldwide.
