Henkel's Beauty Care business unit achieves zero label liner waste with UPM Raflatac's RafCycle®

Henkel's Beauty Care business unit, which markets brands such as Schwarzkopf, has reduced its label liner waste to zero in a unique partnership with UPM Raflatac. Henkel generated more than 400 tons of siliconized glassine label liner waste at its Wassertrüdingen facility in Germany during 2016. Through UPM Raflatac's RafCycle recycling concept, Henkel has been able to recycle the entire amount, equivalent to 20 truckloads of liner waste.

UPM Raflatac's innovative RafCycle concept gives a new life to self-adhesive label waste that would otherwise be incinerated or landfilled. In this latest success, UPM collects used label release liner from Henkel and recycles it into new graphic printing paper for books and magazines at the UPM Plattling paper mill in Germany.

"Cooperating with our partners along our value chain is a key element in our sustainability strategy," comments Greg Douglas, Business Development for Tapes, Labels, Coatings in Europe at Henkel. "The partnership with UPM Raflatac reflects our belief that sustainability is inseparably linked to innovation and efficiency. In our workshop with UPM Raflatac, our Henkel Laundry experts were able to develop additional ideas, setting the path for further improvements, especially in the field of new sustainable label design."

"Henkel has a wide-ranging role in the labelling value chain - both as a raw material supplier and as a label end-user. This makes Henkel an important partner for us, and the RafCycle program is a vital element of our cooperation," says Juha Virmavirta, Director, RafCycle solutions, UPM Raflatac. "We both see sustainability as a key to success and a driver of innovation. Our recycling partnership is a concrete example of this, and I'm convinced there are many more opportunities to deepen our cooperation."

UPM Raflatac and Henkel, a global producer of industrial, commercial and consumer care products, continue to strengthen their collaboration in support of sustainable development in the labelling value chain. Henkel was recently awarded the RafCycle partner certificate for glassine paper liner recycling.