Labelexpo Europe: Herma to exhibit reduced carbon self-adhesive labeling line

31 Aug 2023 --- Herma will showcase its self-adhesive material for labels at Labelexpo Europe 2023 in Brussels, Belgium, September 11-14. Herma says in terms of the emission balance sheet, its adhesives temporarily bind even more CO2 than is emitted for production until it is delivered.

Herma will highlight its adhesive 71N developed in partnership with BASF and its Hermacoat light on the tradeshow floor.

“With the new self-adhesive material, we are meeting the growing desire of label users to reduce the dependence and use of fossil raw materials in the supply chain for packaging and labeling materials. At the same time, it is an active contribution to climate protection if as much CO2 is bound from the atmosphere as possible,” says Marcus Gablowski, chief sustainability officer at Herma.

Emissions balance
According to the “biomass balance approach,” the raw materials required for the 71N production are partly based on biomass from organic waste instead of fossil raw materials. Herma says the appropriate plants have recently extracted the greenhouse gas CO2 from the atmosphere during their growth phase – an effect not available in fossil raw materials.

“The main premise for us in developing the [71N] adhesive was to retain the quality properties. We have established and proven this in many series of tests. The new adhesive 71N has excellent adhesive properties and can be easily processed,” says Dr. Stefan Kissling, head of development of adhesives and special coatings for Herma’s Self-Adhesive Materials Division.

Herma has reduced its CO2 emissions for self-adhesive label solutions. The climate protection specialist Myclimate has calculated the emissions balance, considering the cradle-to-gate approach and the final disposal phase. Carbotech, an independent specialist in life cycle assessments, has reviewed its calculation method.

“The cradle-to-gate alone approach does not take into account the utilization and disposal phases as we have no control over them,” says Gablowski.

“Regardless of how the label is structured, the bound CO2 is rereleased when incinerated at the end of its life cycle. But if it is recycled, the bound CO2 remains in the material cycle for longer. This once again underscores the importance of material recycling.”

As part of its certification, REDCert confirms that BASF replaces a defined proportion of fossil raw materials with renewable raw materials within its production processes.

Low-carbon adhesives
The Hermacoat light focused on achieving the emissions balance target to take into account the use of renewable raw materials for all the main components of the new self-adhesive material.

The adhesive absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere during the growth phase, thereby storing it temporarily.

“In close cooperation with our long-standing suppliers, we have also selected a label and a backing material characterized by a low carbon footprint even without taking the bound CO2 into account. Solely through the appropriate materials, we reduced this value by about 20% compared to conventional self-adhesive material, as calculations show,” explains Gablowski.

Herma says the Hermacoat light label material suits sophisticated labels with multi-color printing. The slightly glossy surface produces good print quality in all conventional printing processes, thermal transfer and laser printing. Hermacoat light can also be printed with digital printing processes such as Xeikon and UV inkjet.

Edited by Sabine Waldeck

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