LINTEC’s long-standing commitment to the use of environmentally friendly and sustainable materials and processes in its production process was recognized last night by the prestigious award for Sustainability at the INDUSTRY GLOBAL AWARDS hosted by LABELEXPO 2015. Since the 1990’s, LINTEC has launched a whole range of environmentally friendly products under the “KINATH” brand (its KINd to the eArTH innovative programme). LINTEC has been leading the replacement of solvent pressure sensitive adhesives with solvent-free pressure sensitive adhesives. By 2013, 71% of all LINTEC’s label printing materials were solvent free.

KP5000, the latest product in the KINATH series, is another testament to the overall commitment of LINTEC to produce sustainable and environmentally friendly products. With KP 5000 LINTEC has managed to create a unique, environmentally friendly and sustainable facestock, which uses the world’s highest percentage of recycled PET pellets (80%), coming from old PET bottles.

LINTEC, which was founded in 1934, has a long tradition of environmentally friendly innovation and has often been a frontrunner in the industry. By investing in research and testing, LINTEC has been the first in the industry to successfully introduce a mechanical recycling process. Mechanical recycling leads to better results than the traditionally used processes of Material recycling or Chemical recycling. This allows LINTEC to produce recycled PET film labels with equivalent properties to virgin PET film labels, leading to a CO² emission reduction of 24% over the whole production process at a lower cost than for other recycled materials.  Making use of recycled materials as part of a life-cycle assessment of the production leads to a better conservation of scarce petroleum resources and benefits the environment.