Sustainable self-adhesives, the Fedrigoni group on the front line

Arconvert-Ritrama, as part of the Fedrigoni Group, are among the founders of CELAB-Europe, a European consortium aimed at improving and promoting policies for the recovery and recycling of siliconized label liner and matrix materials.

Arconvert-Ritrama – Fedrigoni Group – are one of the 4 founder and steering members, together with other major names in the industrial landscape of self-adhesive materials, of CELAB-Europe, a consortium dedicated to the implementation of a new circular economy business model for self-adhesive label materials in Europe. Officially presented by FINAT (European Association for the Self-Adhesive Label Industry), the consortium will work to collectively identify and scale recycling and re-use solutions for the self-adhesive label liner and matrix materials. The initiative aims to develop a sustainable and circular business model for over 75% of the used liner and matrix materials in Europe by 2025.

The extreme importance of the project lies in the collective will of the entire self-adhesive industrial sector to give life to this initiative. In a first ever, the main players in the self-adhesive industry in Europe have combined their strengths and skills to create a dense network through which to correlate the different production processes and the recycling capacities of the different markets. The goal is not just exclusively to give light to a new sustainable business model, through the recovery and reuse of materials, but to also analyse any technical issues; to promote the use and implementation of virtuous recycling networks; to constantly interact with government authorities and to educate the industry and its public in different markets, involving the entire supply chain in the process. To date, around 20 very important players active in the value chain of labels in Europe, including producers of raw materials and label producers, have committed themselves to supporting the initiative, in a collective effort towards sustainability and better use of the resources at our disposal.

As Fulvio Capussotti, Executive Vice President Arconvert-Ritrama, part of Fedrigoni Group, explains: “we are strongly oriented towards a sustainable business model that aims at extending the life cycle of products through the reuse, recycling and reconditioning of existing materials. For this reason, we are making huge investments in this direction at a Group level and we have decided to create an active collaboration with the main players in the sector in order to arrive at a concrete and achievable solution as an industry as soon as possible.”

The participation of Arconvert-Ritrama in the CELAB-Europe consortium is part of a broader sustainability project, which sees the Fedrigoni Group engaged in a continuous improvement plan for more than 25 years, to support the environment through the development of internal policies aimed at improving production processes, supply chain, environmental impact and product innovation; without losing sight of respect for people. A real long-term sustainability plan that in 2019 recorded a 46% reduction in water consumption and 13% thermal energy consumption (-9% of electric energy). Moreover, since 2014 all pulp has been FSC™ certified, from forests that are protected by international treaties guaranteeing their sustainability in environmental, social and economic terms.