A milestone earned, not given
Achieving 100% landfill free operations doesn't happen overnight. It takes years of process audits, vendor partnerships, employee commitment, and a willingness to rethink how waste is handled at every stage of production. From liner waste and trim scrap to packaging materials and shop floor byproducts, we examined every output stream and found a better path than the landfill.
What's next?
With landfill elimination established into our operations, now what? Our attention has turned to three new frontiers: driving solvents out of adhesives, post consumer waste strategies, and the energy powering our facility.
In Progress: Driving solvents out of adhesives
Many pressure sensitive adhesives widely used in our industry rely on solvent based chemistry. Solvents allow for excellent tack and performance characteristics, but they come with environmental tradeoffs of containing volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions during manufacturing and more complex recyclability considerations.
Our team is actively evaluating water based and hot melt adhesive alternatives that match or exceed the performance of their solvent based counterparts. This swap isn't easy though. It requires rigorous testing against our client's specifications including extreme temperature exposure ranges, surface types, and application environments to make sure our clients never notice a difference in their label's performance or bottom line.
It's a technical challenge we're proud to take on and we intend to lead the way in the industry.
Upcoming: Post Consumer Waste Alignment
Labels are often just a small component of our client's final products, but collectively, they represent a significant volume of material in consumer waste streams. Factors such as the liner, face stock, and adhesive layer can complicate recycling. For example, a label on a plastic bottle, may need to be separated before the bottle can be effectively processed.
We're exploring several post consumer waste reduction strategies, including linerless label constructions that eliminate the release liner entirely, recyclable face stock materials that don't impede downstream recycling, and partnerships with brands that are building take back or closed loop packaging programs.
Exploring: Solar Energy
As we look for ways to reduce our environmental impact beyond waste, on site solar generation has emerged as a meaningful area of future exploration for Grand Rapids Label.
Assessing roof capacity, energy consumption patterns, and the long term economics of renewable generation are all on the table. West Michigan's growing solar infrastructure and available incentive programs make the timing increasingly favorable for GRLabel to take a longer view.
Interested in starting your own sustainability journey? We are happy to provide guidance on creating best practices and how to start incorporating sustainability into your operations, regardless of industry. Click here to to contact us!