The circular economy has been on the agenda for a couple of years already, but in the last few months we have seen a seismic shift in public concern about the use of plastic in packaging and plastic pollution.
We have seen the EU publish its plastic strategy, global brands like Coca Cola setting ambitious targets on plastic packaging and TV programmes like David Attenborough’s blue planet raising attention further with its focus on ocean plastics.
As the world’s most sustainable labeling company, it’s only natural that we should innovate the way forward towards the ultimate circular solution in packaging. And as part of UPM, the Biofore company, we have the potential to make it a reality.
Our current range of sustainable labeling products surpasses today’s benchmarks, delivering sustainability at every point in the product lifecycle. We are using radical innovation to develop solutions that were previously thought unviable. There’s a way to go still, but today we are making huge steps in the right direction, creating thinner and lighter, recyclable and biobased products that are the blueprint for a circular future tomorrow. Ultimately though, it is a bio-future that is the logical solution for a circular society but it requires us to rethink the system, re-consider the possible and use radical innovation to get us there.
With innovation at the centre of our business and our leading position in the forest based products value chain, we are in a unique position to create truly circular film labeling solutions that will completely bypass the conventional plastics challenges we face today – stepping over old approaches and processes to deliver new solutions that radically change systems and reshape how we think and deal with plastics. This is exactly the type of thinking the planet needs and we need partnerships to get there.
We at UPM Raflatac believe in collaboration throughout the value chain and that’s why we have joined the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Circular Economy 100 (CE 100) programme at the beginning of this year. The CE 100 programme is a pre-competitive innovation programme established to enable organisations to develop new opportunities and realise their circular economy ambitions faster. It brings together corporates, governments and cities, academic institutions, emerging innovators and affiliates in a unique multi-stakeholder platform. Join us on our journey to label a smarter future. Together we can close the circle.