Laminate waste, recycling, recovery
Packaging waste
The European Directive 94/62/EC for Packaging Waste was introduced in order to harmonize national measures to reduce and/or prevent any adverse impact that packaging and packaging waste may have on the environment.
Labels are part of the packaging industry, often becoming an integral part of the product once used. In some countries the backing paper is also classed as packaging. For further information on how this may affect your business, please seek advice locally.
One requirement of the packaging waste directive concerns the restriction of the heavy metals, lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium. An analysis of various laminates for heavy metal content has already been carried out. The results obtained showed that typical laminate values are:
- Lead less than 2ppm
- Cadmium less than 2ppm
- Mercury less than 2ppm
- Hexavalent Chromium less than 2ppm
Siliconized release liner
Pure paper, siliconized release liner can be recycled once all the labels have been removed.
Paper laminate and label waste
It is not feasible to recycle laminate and label waste. Large amounts of sticky adhesive are problematic for paper mills. Label waste can be used as an alternative fuel for energy recovery. UPM Raflatac uses this method in its own factories. According to UPM Raflatac’s calculations, 1kg of label waste generates about 17.5 MJ of energy, with an ash content of about 15 %. The energy corresponds to approximately 0.35 kg of fuel oil.
Labelled packages
Labelled packages can be recycled if the label content is low. According to our estimates, the level of adhesive has to be below 0.01 %, or 5 m² of labels per tonne of waste, in order to minimize subsequent problems with paper machines. The actual level, however, depends on the cleaning technique and the requirements of the end product.
Filmic/Synthetic labels
In most cases, filmic/synthetic labels on plastic packages can be recycled. As a general rule, polyolefins (PE and PP) can be combined to a certain extent. PET can only be recycled on PET packages and PS on PS packages. PE and PP packages cannot be recycled if paper, PVC, or PET labels are attached.
If you are uncertain about the suitability of any product in a recycling process, thorough testing is recommended before proceeding.