With global brands establishing lofty sustainability standards, label waste will continue to be front and center in the public consciousness. The issue of label waste – and, of course, liner waste – will be integral to the label and package printing industry’s future.

Last year, TLMI established the Liner Recycling Initiative (LRI), a pilot program designed to identify and solve obstacles to recycling the material. To further its mission, TLMI partnered with Resource Recycling Systems (RRS), a global consultancy that provides solutions for optimizing recycling processes, reducing waste, and minimizing environmental impact at all points in the supply chain.

“TLMI’s LRI is collaborating with Sustana Solutions to learn more about the obstacles to more mills taking paper release liner for recycling purposes,” states Roz Bandy, VP of sustainability, TLMI. “Mills that use a de-inking process can successfully remove the silicone and access the excellent fiber in the release liner. Mills without a de-inking process find that the silicone causes issues with the final product. The LRI will be doing trials with mills willing to use a small percentage of release liner in their mix to see if the impact is less. The primary obstacle is collecting enough release liner for the trials. We are actively seeking brands, co-packers, e-commerce to contact us about recycling their release liner.”

RRS has found success in getting other non-recyclable paper products into recycling streams. Some examples include the Polycoated Paper Alliance, Carton Council, and the Paper Cup Alliance. In the coming month, TLMI will be sharing several case studies of companies that are recycling their release liner successfully in the hope that it will inspire other similar companies to do the same.

During the AWA Global Release Liner Summit, held March 19-21, 2025, the issue for brands was clearly articulated: “As a company, we’re always looking at ways to minimize our waste – and that includes liner,” stated Karina Tettero, packaging and printing production manager, Dr. Bronner’s. “We currently have 40 gaylords sitting in our warehouse with liner waiting to be recycled. There are a lot of companies out there unaware that liner is recyclable. I urge the industry to make this pilot program successful so brands like ourselves can meet our zero waste goals.

“We are looking at other innovation because of the waste our labels generate,” she emphasized.

Translation: Dr. Bronner’s will explore solutions beyond pressure sensitive labels to ensure the brand lowers its carbon footprint.

Therefore, experts in the label space are working tirelessly to address this issue. “As a member of the pressure sensitive industry, which has provided many career opportunities, I view liner recycling as critical to the continued growth in this industry segment,” explains Adam Frey, VP, Converter Direct, Wausau Coated Products. “Currently, roughly one-third to a half of what we produce as a pressure sensitive material gets peeled off and thrown away. If we don’t figure out how to create less waste with our process, other forms of packaging may replace us.

“This liner is a wonderful source of high-quality white fiber, and it can be used to make many other things like more release liner, paper products, and even insulation,” Frey continues. “The industry should know there are viable options now to recycle liner. It starts with educating yourself at linerrecycling.com. If you happen to have customers that generate spent paper release liner in the upper Midwest or the Northeast corridor of the US we need your help to connect with them for our pilot programs that are just kicking off.”

According to Calvin Frost, chairman of Channeled Resources Group, the next innovation needed for release liner has to incorporate a different chemistry for release.

“Silicone is expensive and complicated,” says Frost. “We need something new. I am sure many of the big companies are working on it. Still, we haven’t found the next generation.       I am convinced that poly coated base has to go, but this will take years. The alternative is clay coated, which is cheaper and performs adequately. It’s not as good as PE, but it works and is far more sustainable.”

Finding harmony throughout the supply chain will be pivotal in solving this problem. From suppliers to the end user, everyone has to find common ground in facilitating release liner recycling.

“The most challenging is getting all parts of the supply chain to commit to change,” says Frost. “We, industry, trade organizations, and so on have done a lousy job of getting the brand owner on board. If we can’t get the big guys to participate, we don’t have a chance. Amazon is the most public example.

“The brand owner is the key because that’s where the waste is,” Frost continues. “You can’t wait for the converter, the TLMI member, to buy into a program. This isn’t their priority. We have to go to the generator, the brand owner, and convince them that to landfill release liner is not only unnecessary but unacceptable. The driver of this has to also believe they can make money.”

One of the first steps in solving the problem will be education. From suppliers to the end user, the more knowledge permeating throughout the marketplace will only foster more solutions.

“WCP has embraced sustainability in many ways,” says Frey. “We always start with the customer first and our ability to create release liner out of many different materials, with customized release formulas that allow us to innovate quickly to help the customer.  Our commitment as a TLMI member and our president and owner, Ben Rief, putting our people and resources into leading a TLMI Committee focused on the future of recycling release liner and diverting it from landfill across the country. That’s one example. Another example is offering  90% rPET 1.2 PET liner stocked on many of our specialty paper offerings used in beverage and gourmet food end user segments.”

Education also included staying apprised of the latest industry trends. According to WCP, the latest release liner trends are often behind the scenes and happening without much attention, but they are critical to the future of our industry.

“We are seeing more release liner options enter from global sources as the availability in North America for PS liner grade paper continues to shrink,” states Frey. “The requests for PCW content and FSC-certified paper liners, as well as recycled content in PET liner, has increased. The brands paying attention to their waste realize that liner from their pressure sensitive labels is part of their overall waste picture and these brands are looking for options.”

Even though the acknowledgment for change is often there, the results have not been. Even though TLMI has taken extra measures to continue innovation in this area, the initiative is still in its infancy.

“TLMI has hired RRS and the jury is still out,” says Frost. “I was and am still convinced that if we want to be successful in liner recycling, we need a full time, 100% focused individual to ‘dog’ the business. I would have followed the same model developed in Europe by my friend Petri Tani. Petri is the one who taught Fox River (now Sustana) how to desiliconize. He has done a marvelous job over there. Of course, things in Europe are quite a bit different. The new regulations do not permit landfill and/or incineration. But that was just regulated, and Petri has been in business for over 10 years.”

According to Bandy, due to a lack of paper recycling capacity, one liner recycler in the EU recently said there has been an increased focus on developing alternative routes.

“These alternatives include processing silicone-coated papers in fiber insulation materials, animal bedding, and packaging filling products,” she says. “TLMI has done trials with similar alternatives in the US, but the material was not found to be ideal, and the companies declined to use it.”

For those interested in the further exploration of release liner recycling, TLMI’s committees are actively involved in tackling this issue. “Committees are the lifeblood of TLMI,” says Bandy. “They’re where influence occurs, friends are made, and education happens. Our committees, which are focused on different sustainability issues, are the Liner Recycling Committee, Matrix Landfill Avoidance Committee, Sustainable Resources Committee, Regulatory Affairs Committee, and, to celebrate success, the Sustainability Leadership Awards Committee. All TLMI members are invited to be part of any committee.”