After several years of operating independent programs to research and identify recycling solutions for silicone-coated label release liner, TLMI and CELAB North America will merge their efforts under a unified TLMI project called the Liner Recycling Initiative (LRI).

“The goal of the initiative is to build on the work done to date by both organizations, and conduct regional pilots,” said TLMI President Linnea Keen. “These regional pilots will qualify silicone-coated paper release liner with known recycling and end markets before scaling the program through a deliberate build out. Collaboration with CELAB will serve to expand and elevate all existing liner recycling programs and advance marketplace solutions more quickly.”

TLMI and its implementation partner, Resource Recycling Systems (RRS), will be reaching out to interested partners within target regions to participate in the 6-month pilots. The TLMI goal for the initiative is a national recycling program for users of labels with silicone-coated paper release liner.

Tim Rummel, acting president of CELAB North America added, “The collaboration between TLMI and CELAB, along with the proven track record of RRS, will bring significant value and focus to what each group has been working on independently.”

The pilot will be aimed at both small and large generators of silicone-coated paper release liner and built around regional end markets in the upper Midwest or the Northeast. One mill operator has tested and qualified silicone-coated release liner, which is a major step in both helping the supply chain establish best practices and developing a roadmap for generators on how to divert this material from landfill and recycle it in a high-value market.