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The BCF has revealed improvements in energy usage and waste management for the coatings sector, demonstrating changes towards sustainability in print, materials, and packaging
The British Coatings Federation (BCF) has found industry improvements in the coatings sector across a range of sustainability measures.
The BCF Coatings Care programme was established in 1996 to monitor and drive improvement in the health and welfare of employees, the safe operation of processes, and sustainable practices across the coatings sector.
The voluntary programme benchmarks BCF members’ environmental performance against 45 key performance indicators (KPIs), which allow performance changes to be measured over the span of several years. Over 40 UK coatings and printing ink manufacturing sites are currently taking part in the scheme. This year saw the highest number of companies take part in the programme since 2012.
BCF has reported that in 2023, energy use among the companies taking part was 161 kWh per tonne of production, down 9% compared to the previous year. This is 10% lower than was measured in 2020, and the lowest recorded energy use figure since the survey began in 1996.
For the first time since the programme began, a majority of sites reported zero landfill waste from production, according to the BCF.
59% of the companies surveyed said that all their waste was either incinerated or recycled. For the constant sample of 22 companies providing consistent data for the last five years, 16 produced no landfill waste at all.
Among this group of 22 companies, total waste was 34.6kg per tonne of production, 7% lower than in 2023. This constitutes the best result for the programme in five years, outside of the year of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
BCF also reported that recycling among those surveyed had increased to 70% of all waste compared to just 17% in 1996, with landfill waste falling to a new low of just 1% of overall waste.
Tom Bowtell, chief executive office of the BCF, says: “This year’s results were particularly satisfactory. While we know there is much more to be done to continue to boost our performance, this year’s report shows welcome steps in the right direction and is a tribute to the work BCF members are putting into becoming a more sustainable sector.”
The findings demonstrate the continuing push for sustainable practices, particularly within printing, paper, materials, and packaging.
Paperboard manufacturer, Metsä Board, recently introduced QR codes on the pallet and reel labels of its products which directs customers to a custom-made packaging materials app. The app provides detailed information on the various packaging materials used to protect the paperboard during the logistics chain.
The information is designed to assist customers in determining how each component of the delivery’s packaging should be recycled, with the aim of reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills and ensuring the materials are recycled as part of the local circular economy.
Premier Paper Group has also released a range of sustainably focused products in recent months. Its eTEC AIR Bubble Board is PVC-free, fully recyclable through the FESPA waste accreditation scheme, and eligible for carbon capture.
Most recently, Premier announced that its Carbon Capture environmental programme had reached a milestone of £2m donated to The Woodland Trust. According to Premier, these donations have so far supported the planting of 519,132 trees and captured an estimated 119,869 tonnes of CO2 over the planted trees' lifetime.
In November, Avery Dennison also announced that its film label solutions are fully compatible with HDPE plastic recycling in what it describes as a market first.
The assessment, carried out by Belgian waste-management service Recyclass, means that Avery Dennison film labels are now confirmed to be fully compatible with existing European industrial recycling processes for rigid HDPE containers, allowing them to be recycled and therefore reducing landfill waste.
Currently, many labels on HDPE containers are not confirmed to be compatible with the HDPE recycling process, potentially lowering the percentage of plastic waste that is successfully recycled.
