23-02-16
Member news
HERMA remains committed to sustainability: Five years of release liner recycling
• A special recycling programme for used release liner enabled HERMA to avoid around 519 metric tons of CO2 emissions in 2015 – approx. 13 percent more than in 2014.
• Apart from averting enormous quantities of waste, the initiative compensates for the CO2 emissions of the company's vehicle fleet.
• The recycling process also gives rise to raw materials that are used by HERMA to produce 100 percent recycled label stock.
For the fifth year in succession HERMA has posted positive recycling results. Since 2010 the company has been supplying discarded release liner to the specialist recycling company Cycle4Green. In the more distant past it was impossible to recycle this material because of its high silicone content, but since the C4G programme was initiated, the recycled quantities have increased every year. As a consequence, considerable quantities of waste have been avoided and precious resources have been preserved. Building on the initial quantity of around 100 metric tons collected in 2011, HERMA recycled a total of 226 metric tons of siliconised release liner in 2015. Without this recycling performance, manufacturing products from virgin fibre would have increased CO2 emissions by 519 metric tons. HERMA is therefore more than making good the CO2 emissions of its own vehicles – the almost 80 cars in the fleet emit only around 377 metric tons of CO2. "The recycling programme not only protects the environment, but also has favourable outcomes for our business," explains HERMA managing director Dr. Thomas Baumgärtner. "Recycling the release liner recovers raw materials that HERMA re-uses in production, achieving a more or less continuous cycle. Five years after the launch of the Cycle4Green initiative we can now say that the system is well established and benefits both the environment and our company."
• Apart from averting enormous quantities of waste, the initiative compensates for the CO2 emissions of the company's vehicle fleet.
• The recycling process also gives rise to raw materials that are used by HERMA to produce 100 percent recycled label stock.
For the fifth year in succession HERMA has posted positive recycling results. Since 2010 the company has been supplying discarded release liner to the specialist recycling company Cycle4Green. In the more distant past it was impossible to recycle this material because of its high silicone content, but since the C4G programme was initiated, the recycled quantities have increased every year. As a consequence, considerable quantities of waste have been avoided and precious resources have been preserved. Building on the initial quantity of around 100 metric tons collected in 2011, HERMA recycled a total of 226 metric tons of siliconised release liner in 2015. Without this recycling performance, manufacturing products from virgin fibre would have increased CO2 emissions by 519 metric tons. HERMA is therefore more than making good the CO2 emissions of its own vehicles – the almost 80 cars in the fleet emit only around 377 metric tons of CO2. "The recycling programme not only protects the environment, but also has favourable outcomes for our business," explains HERMA managing director Dr. Thomas Baumgärtner. "Recycling the release liner recovers raw materials that HERMA re-uses in production, achieving a more or less continuous cycle. Five years after the launch of the Cycle4Green initiative we can now say that the system is well established and benefits both the environment and our company."