Finat Sustainability Awards 2021 winners announced

The 2021 Finat Sustainability Award recognizes the efforts of the self-adhesive label value chain to reduce, reuse and recycle. The ten initiatives entered in the competition demonstrated a broad spectrum of approaches to increasing sustainability in the value chain for self-adhesive labels: systems for the collection of label waste, technical solutions for packaging for disposable and reusable packaging, circular approaches for face materials, sleeves and carrier materials.  

 

The jury, consisting of Jacques van Leeuwen (chair), Gian De Belder (P&G) and Rosalyn Bandy (TLMI), was given the difficult task of reviewing the submitted data and determining the winners. The winning initiatives were characterized by their novelty, scalability and cooperation along the value chain. The competition had a converter and a supplier category: CCL Label and Avery Dennison were awarded with the Finat Sustainability Award 2021 in their respective category.   

 

CCL Label won with its entry ‘EcoStretch Initiative, a circular solution for stretch sleeves’. The initiative is characterized by great impact and a high level of innovation (including a de-inking step for plastic), involves the entire packaging value chain, including a key brand owner and a recycler, and is an example of a completely circular model for decoration.   

Avery Dennison was awarded with its entry ‘Sustainable resealable materials, from PVDC-free oxygen barriers in food to mono-material solutions in HPC’. The innovations described can easily be used in highly relevant types of packaging in the food and hygiene sectors, enabling the shelf life of products to be extended. At the same time, they ensure the recyclability of the packaging materials in accordance with the CEFLEX design guidelines for flexible packaging materials.   

 

Finat Regulatory and Sustainability Affairs manager, Pablo Englebienne, commented: ‘We were pleased to see participation from across the supply chain, and from all company sizes: small, medium and large. Although the awards went to two major players in the industry, we are pleased to see that sustainability is not a “blue chip” privilege. I would really like to encourage also SMEs to submit again for next year. Going forward we are considering some changes to recognize sustainable innovations from all segments of the industry. We are looking forward to multiply this year’s numbers in 2022.’  

 

Sustainable practice is key to the self-adhesive label industry and has been recognized as one of the pillars for Finat’s strategy. In addition to the growing availability of sustainable and economically viable recycling solutions for secondary materials from the industry, companies are making concerted efforts to limit the amount of raw materials used, increase the use of recycled material and to limit the impact of labels on recyclability of the labeled product.