CELAB-Europe is an industry initiative to build a Circular Economy for self-adhesive Label materials in Europe. It is a collaboration of the whole self-adhesive label value chain to allow stakeholders to collect and recycle their used release liner and matrix material. The goal of the initiative is to have more than 75% of the used release liner and matrix follow a circular business model by 2025.
The development of a circular solution for release liners requires the close collaboration of the complete value chain of self-adhesive labels. On one hand, the material is fragmented across companies using self-adhesive labels (=label users), resulting in scattered small volumes that are difficult to collect. Having a network of recyclers spread across Europe would enable a consolidation of logistics and a reduction of transportation distances. On the other hand, increasing awareness of label users concerning recycling the used liner is critical to collecting more volumes. Many label users still do not know that the liner is recyclable and dispose of it in the general waste.
Recycling used release liners is not a new concept, but so far only a few single-company initiatives exist. As the topic is complex, because the material is fragmented all over Europe at different sites and in small quantities, it requires a joint effort of the whole value chain to collaborate towards the same goal. CELAB can achieve more results faster than single-company initiatives, by building scale through Europe, representing the whole value chain to collaborate, sharing knowledge and expertise, and having dedicated people to lead the project.
The challenges on the matrix are more technical: its recycling is difficult due to the presence of adhesives and because the material types are often mixed together (Paper, PE, and PP face material). The consortium is actively looking for enabling technologies to overcome those challenges and facilitate the development of recyclers.
The project is organised into 5 workstreams working on different topics: Data mining, Recycling solutions, Logistics, Regulatory, and Communication.
The deliverables of the different Workstreams include:
- Data mining: A better understanding of the material distribution per country and per type of material (Paper liner, PET liner, and matrix) with the creation of material heat maps
- Recycling solutions: Identification of the existing recycling streams for each type of material and creation of a network to leverage the synergies and complementarities between the different players (collectors and recyclers).
- Logistics: Facilitation of the development of new recyclers to develop the recyclers network to the level needed to recycle 75% of the material and also to decrease the transport distances between the waste generators and the recycling sites.
- Regulatory: A good understanding of how the used liner and matrix are considered by the EU Commission but also by the country legislations, and the impact on the packaging tax fees and transport requirements.
- Communication: Education of the label users and converters that the used liner and the matrix can be recycled and how to do it.
2023 CELAB results can be read in the FINAT yearbook p.52-55