Christmas Recycling

Small- and family forest owners – the little guys – are important stewards of the world’s forests. From our very beginnings, we have had their needs at heart. All over the world, smallholders are managing their forests sustainably, yet certification remains out of their reach – simply because they don’t have the means to obtain it. PEFC was founded by small- and family forest owners, and from early on, we were aware that the costs and procedures of forest certification can be a significant obstacle for them. While we never compromised on sustainability – our requirements must be met by everyone, independent of size – we wanted PEFC certification to be attainable for all forest owners, including those with limited financial means. The solution is group certification, a mechanism we established almost twenty years ago. It allows smallholders to organize themselves in groups and pool their resources to achieve certification.

To help understand the full "label life" of their products, from the extraction of raw materials to delivery of finished label stock to customers, UPM Raflatac has collaborated with leading Brazilian converter Baumgarten on a life-cycle assessment (LCA) of label material release liners, with exciting results to report. These two frontrunner companies in the label value chain have adopted this voluntary guidance to assess - and reduce - their impact on the environment. The study will be publicly available at Labelexpo Americas in Chicago from September 13-15. Baumgarten began its LCA efforts with a foundational study comparing glassine (landfilled) and PET (recycled) release liners for a product it produces with UPM Raflatac label stock. Although PET liners are manufactured from petrochemicals, they are easier to recycle in Brazil than glassine liners. Additionally, because PET liners are thinner, they can yield more labels per roll and offer fewer roll changes on-press, allowing printers, converters and end-users to achieve greater productivity.

In an important step towards ensuring the raw materials coming out of a PEFC-certified forest comply with EUDR requirements, the revised PEFC Sustainable Forest Management benchmark standard was approved by the PEFC General Assembly on Wednesday 13 November 2024. This revised standard, PEFC ST 1003:2024, comprises several new and amended requirements that will enable EUDR alignment for PEFC-certified material coming directly from a PEFC-certified forest. This marks an important step in our PEFC roadmap to EUDR alignment.