Environmentally friendly labels: HERMA wins Packaging Award

With the InNo-Liner system, self-adhesive materials specialist HERMA has developed a solution that can drastically minimize the entire climate-relevant CO₂ footprint of labels – by managing without any liner material. This innovation has won over an experienced jury: the system has now won the German Packaging Award in the category sustainability. One major reason: it helps users avoid thousands of tons of liner material which would otherwise need to be disposed of after application. Made from paper or film, liner materials are used to cover the adhesive side of labels. According to the German Federal Association for Parcel and Express Logistics (BIEK), more than ten million shipping labels are used per day in Germany alone. The new InNo-Liner system therefore helps avoid a huge amount of waste. The German Packaging Award is regarded as the most prestigious packaging performance competition in Europe. Held under the patronage of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, an independent jury with members from trade associations, companies, trade, and research had analyzed and judged submissions from 14 countries. In the end, 34 innovations from Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and Sweden won prizes in the award’s ten categories. “A strong field of participants with many convincing solutions has not made it easy for our jury. That makes the 34 winners stand out all the more”, said Dr. Bettina Horenburg, board member of the German Packaging Institute (dvi) and overall responsible for the German Packaging Award, on the occasion of the announcement of the winners. HERMA, who was also a development partner for an adhesive label made from 100% recycled PE, was represented twice in the sustainability category this year. “Lately, we have developed a whole range of innovations that demonstrate how labels can contribute to making packaging and recycling processes much more sustainable”, reports Dr. Thomas Baumgärtner, Managing Director and Head of HERMA’s Self-adhesive Materials division. The InNo-Liner System will have its premiere at the Fachpack and Labelexpo exhibitions in Nuremberg and Brussels, where visitors can also see the PE film label made from recycled material.

Strong performance thanks to multi-layer technology

HERMA‘s InNo-Liner system is based on a specially developed technology. “Unlike in conventional labels, the paper material is not sticky because the adhesive is not activated until later“, explains HERMA‘s Milos Kojic who contributed to the project. „Not until the label is dispensed does a precise, purely water-based micro-atomiser activate the adhesive.” The extremely strong adhesion is made possible by a special multi-layer adhesive, which HERMA is seeking a patent for – along with the micro-atomiser which was specially developed for the system. The InNo-Liner system was jointly developed by all three HERMA divisions: Labelling Machines, Self-adhesive Materials, and Labels. Accordingly, the company was overjoyed to have won the award: “It is a great honour for all participants to have won this renowned award”, says Milos Kojic. “We have put our heart and soul into this project right from the start and are very happy that the efforts made by the development team are now paying off.”

Two awards for HERMA developments

HERMA contributed to another winner of the German Packaging Award in the sustainability category: a PE film label made from 100 percent recycled material. A joint development with the printer schäfer-etiketten, and supported by the company POLIFILM which specializes in PE films, it is the first PE film label made exclusively from recycled polyethylene and the substance titanium dioxide (TiO₂), a major pigment. The “raw material” for these labels is made from 50 percent industrial waste and 50 percent used PE household packaging, such as plastic bottles.