Mondi accelerates liner production circularity through industry collaboration

27 Feb 2024 --- Mondi is tackling the siliconized and coated paper waste produced at its release liner plants in Jülich, Germany, and Heerlen, the Netherlands, by collaborating with industry stakeholders along the value chain. Ninety-five percent of the production waste is now used as secondary raw material for other industries due to the packaging giant’s partnerships. 

“At Mondi, we view waste as a loss of resources and have committed to eliminating waste from our production processes through our MAP 2030 agenda. In this project, we aimed at using the production waste more effectively by valorizing it as secondary raw materials in other applications,” says Carlos Martinez Ezquerra, circular economy manager for Flexible Packaging at Mondi. 

“We are very proud of the 95% reduction we achieved at both locations and now look forward to working with CELAB, the leading industry initiative for the self-adhesive label value chain, and building relationships with other partners to further improve the circular flow of materials also in our other release liner locations across Europe.” 

Mondi aims to reduce coated paper waste through various initiatives. Looping resources
Mondi Jülich and Mondi Heerlen kicked off a partnership with Veyzle, a Dutch paper and plastics recycler, and the Dutch site of Wepa Group, a hygiene papers recycler, two years ago. Since then, Veyzle has collected Mondi’s production waste from the two plants and sorted, shred and bailed the different papers before transporting them to Wepa. 

Wepa has developed an advanced repulping technology to valorize laminated and siliconized papers and uses them to create hygiene paper, such as toilet paper and paper towels. All three partners are located close together to keep transportation to a minimum.

Meanwhile, Mondi is also working with Soprema, a full-range supplier of high-quality waterproofing systems and insulation materials, who uses Mondi’s release liner production waste as base material to manufacture cellulose wadding. This insulation solution increases the energy efficiency of buildings. 

The partnership keeps resources in the loop and contributes to Soprema’s sustainability goals of increasing the proportion of recycled materials and avoiding waste.

Edited by Natalie Schwertheim