Finnish company UPM Specialty Papers has announced collaborating with adhesive tape specialist Lohmann to promote the recycling of paper liners in the tape industry.

As part of this partnership, UPM will provide its existing closed-loop paper liner recycling solution, referred to as LinerLoop, to help Lohmann recycle paper liners.

LinerLoop, which was launched by UPM in 2018, and other similar paper and paperboard recycling streams, serve as a drop-in solution to help fulfil Lohmann’s target of improving the recyclability of liner waste.

UPM Technology director Mikko Rissanen said: “We are delighted to have been able to support Lohmann in removing obstacles for recycling of paper liners in the tape industry.”

Recycling paper liners is claimed to be a ‘difficult’ process within the sector.

One of the major technical barriers to performing high-yield recycling of adhesive tape liners in particular, according to UPM, is that the tape industry mainly uses conventional siliconised release liners with a darker brown shade.

On the contrary, the typical shade of glassine is either white or some other lighter shade, meaning the process of recycling darker shades of glassine grades in the same stream may lead to contamination of the recycled pulp.

UPM also noted that mass recycling of darker shades is not economically feasible as they are only available in small volumes and require to be recycled separately.

To overcome these challenges, Lohmann is undertaking this effort, which is also in line with its own sustainability strategy to drive environmentally friendly adhesive technologies.

UPM and other companies are already offering white liner ranges, so Lohmann has introduced its biobased and solvent-free tape, called DuploCOLL ECO, with a new white paper liner to ensure quality and consistent recycling.

Lohmann scouting director Evert Smit said: “We were aware that the recycling of liners needs to be on our sustainability action plan.

“We wanted to make the first move and set a new standard for our industry and now, in cooperation with UPM Specialty Papers, we hope that others in the tape industry will follow suit and promote sustainability as a collective.”