Avery Dennison Takes Industry Sustainability Award for Third Year Running

Avery Dennison Brazil honored for its pioneering label-waste recycling program; Avery Dennison North America shortlisted for breakthrough TrueCut™ AT2550 all-temperature adhesive.

Glendale, CA, September 15, 2020—Avery Dennison Brazil won the Environmental and Sustainability Award for its Programa Circular recycling program during tonight’s online 2020 Label Industry Global Awards ceremony. This marks the third year in a row, and the fourth year overall, that Avery Dennison has won the award for its innovations in sustainable labeling products and services. 

Avery Dennison Brazil’s Programa Circular collects PET and glassine label liners and film label matrix from converters and end-users employing Avery Dennison materials in Brazil and recycles them into material used to make tissue paper as well as other plastic products. The program is a collaboration with the São Paulo firm Boomera, which specializes in repurposing waste material. 

“Programa Circular connects the dots between us, our customers, our end users and the logistics companies to create an economically valuable solution for label waste,” said Ronaldo Mello, Vice President and General Manager of Avery Dennison’s Label and Graphic Materials Business in Latin America. “We launched the program three years ago and were able to open it to a bigger group of companies in January 2019. I congratulate the many teams across Avery Dennison Brazil who have worked hard on the program and gotten excellent results. I also thank our customers and end-users who took part. I hope this is the first step toward a bigger group of participating companies, so that, together, we can make Brazil’s label industry more sustainable.”

Label waste, much of which ends up in landfills or incinerators, is a longstanding label industry challenge. Avery Dennison has set the goal of helping its customers reduce waste from its products by 70 percent by 2025. From its launch in January 2019 through May 2020, Programa Circular recycled 1436 tons of label waste, with the objective of recycling 1800 tons by the end of 2020.  More than 50 companies—including converters, brands, and recyclers— participate in the program, a number Avery Dennison is aiming to increase.

In addition to Avery Dennison Brazil’s award, Avery Dennison North America was shortlisted for the 2020 Environmental and Sustainability Award for its TrueCut™ AT2550 technology, a new emulsion all-temperature adhesive. The adhesive is formulated without alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEOs), making it more sustainable to produce, according to Avery Dennison’s lifecycle analysis. It is also fully repulpable, enabling paper labels to remain on corrugated packaging that is recycled. 

“Shifting quickly to a circular economy is essential to avoiding the worst effects of climate change, reducing pollution, and building a sustainable society,” said  Renae Kezar, Senior Director, Global Leader of Sustainability at Avery Dennison. “Programa Circular and TrueCut™ AT2550 are two examples of how, around the world, Avery Dennison is developing products and services that contribute to a circular economy for the label industry and the many industries it serves.”

The Environmental and Sustainability Award, part of the Global Label Industry Awards program, is one of the label industry's highest honors. It recognizes a specific sustainable label product or process introduced to the industry in the previous year. 

Learn more about Avery Dennison’s wide range of sustainable labeling innovations at label.averydennison.com/sustainability. Learn about Avery Dennison’s corporate sustainability initiatives at sustainability.averydennison.com.

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