Sustainable Functional Labels for the Pharmaceutical Industry: Innovative and Individual

In the pharmaceutical industry, sustainable packaging solutions are becoming increasingly important. Schreiner MediPharm as a leading specialist in pharma labels, is already acting in the spirit of ambitious sustainability goals and has developed new label concepts meeting the sustainability requirements of its customers and the environmental criteria the company has defined for itself. Schreiner MediPharm’s sustainable functional labels will be showcased at Booth 30H23 at CPhl in Frankfurt from November 1 to 3, 2022.

For its sustainable label solutions, Schreiner MediPharm relies on three pillars: label materials made of recycled and renewable raw materials, sorted recycling/disassembling, and reduction of CO2 emissions. The newly developed label concepts based on existing functional labels include, for instance, a Pharma-Tac label for infusion bottles with an integrated hanger plus removable documentation labels—and an Autoinjector-Label for injection systems that is equipped with an anti-slip feature. For both product solutions, film materials that have either been recycled or produced from renewable raw materials are used for the environmentally friendly versions.

Extensive tests by the in-house R+D department regarding hangers, adhesion, ink adhesion, print durability, and laser marking have demonstrated that the new materials used deliver equally reliable performance as the previous ones. Consequently, they enable smooth processing in pharmaceutical production and reliable functionality in final use.

The Product Carbon Footprint (PFC) was calculated for the two sustainable label concepts as well. This calculation considers the CO2 emissions of a product from raw materials through manufacturing to delivery (“cradle-to-gate”) as well as the impact of end-of-life scenarios (“cradle-to-grave”).

Based on the findings gained, and using the materials that have been qualified accordingly, Schreiner MediPharm is able to design and develop customized solutions that are sustainable (“Integrated Sustainability”), are focused on the product lifecycle (“cradle-to-cradle”), and actively support a sustainable supply chain in the pharmaceutical industry.