Page 39 - FINAT Yearbook 2012

Jonathan Sexton
to support his company’s belief that, in terms of choice of ink type, ‘the best solution is for the packaging supply chain to work together, to ensure the best possible environmental footprint whilst preserving product performance’.
release liner recycling
The various political, corporate, and other drivers for release liner recycling; existing industry solutions; obstacles to widespread adoption of liner recycling; and FINAT’s action agenda to resolve the challenges and create real forward impetus in this important area were then presented by Mark Macaré, FINAT’s Public Affairs and Recycling Project Manager. With full support from the floor, he said that the issue genuinely requires and deserves ‘pan-European ownership’. He adjured seminar delegates to ‘start recycling’, and went on to detail the use of secondary materials in the label chain, recycling ‘bottlenecks’, and FINAT’s role in supporting and promoting industry initiatives. FINAT − a signatory to the European Declaration on Paper Recovery − has established a recycling project group, and is actively promoting and raising the awareness of the importance of recycling for the label industry, as well as positively demonstrating the suitability of siliconised paper liner for recycling.
mike fairley looks back to the future
‘Back to the future’ was the title selected for the concluding keynote presentation from the label industry’s acknowledged guru, Mike Fairley − founder of ‘Labels and Labelling’ magazine and the Labelexpo exhibitions, and Director, Strategic Development, for Tarsus Group’s Labels and Packaging Group. His agenda points were ‘a pioneering history; a changing present; a joined-up future?’
He outlined a history of labelling covering all types of label and substrate, including early cans and wine bottles, showing how labelling has always come up with an answer for every type of packaging. The industry has to continue to innovate to survive, to meet brand owners’ changing needs – because, he said, it is a fact that ‘over the past 250 years it has been the leading brands of the time − wine, spirits, beer, drugs, cigars, foods, personal care, etc − that have driven the growth of labels.’
He showed how the European base of label converters − predominantly family- based small-to-medium-sized enterprises handed down over generations – are experiencing significant change through mergers and
Mike Fairley
acquisitions. Succession planning in family companies is, he emphasised, the key to survival.
Outlining brand owners’ main requirements today, he underlined the importance of environment, sustainability, and waste − and the demands they make at all levels of the label value chain. There are indeed a number of pathways along which label converters are working towards a more sustainable future, he said, illustrating around 30 individual actions which converters are undertaking, from mainstream consumables recycling to vehicle sharing and the use of solar power. But, said Mr Fairley, the label industry actually needs to act on a broader stage, linking with their suppliers on, for example, carbon footprinting.
‘Being innovative and using new technology and solutions has enabled the label industry to continuously adapt to changing brand owners’ needs.’, he said, with a call to action: ‘This is still a requirement in the industry today.’
tabletop, networking, sponsors
Seminar Chairman Sean Duffy thanked Mr Fairley for his ‘challenges to the industry, and to FINAT’ as he closed the formal agenda for 2012. The proceedings were supported by a tabletop exhibition featuring 15 leading suppliers within the label industry, and by extensive networking opportunities during breaks, lunches, and evenings.
Sponsors for the 2012 FINAT Technical Seminar were Bluestar Silicones, Bostik, CERM, Collano, Gallus, GEW, H. B. Fuller, Innovia Films, Labelexpo Global Series, Labels & Labeling, Label Traxx, Mark Andy, MPS, Polyplex, Prati, Rotoflex, and Xeikon.
FINAT members will get together again 6-9 June 2012 in Athens for the association’s Annual Congress; and the next FINAT Technical Seminar will take place in the Spring of 2014.
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FINAT YEARBOOK 2012 |