Liner Recycling Initiative

Pilots

Regional Release Liner Recycling Pilots 

The Liner Recycling Initiative (LRI) has developed two regional pilots, each 6 months long, which are planned around recycling mills that are known to accept and recycle paper release liner. The pilot locations are Chicagoland and the Northeastern U.S. 

To start, Resource Recycling Systems (RRS) will confirm the specifications for accepting release liner in the target recycling mill; e.g., what does the mill require in terms of logistics, how the material is contained, and restrictions on contamination.  

Next, RRS will identify large and small end-users (generators of release liner) to participate in the regional pilot and will establish best operational practices. These best practices will be around collection, aggregation, and bringing this valued fiber product to recycling mills. The learnings from the pilots will be used to develop a roadmap that scales the recycling program nationally. 

PILOT 1

In the first pilot, RRS will partner with end-users of variable information labels that generate large volumes of release liner (at least one full truckload per month). Target large-volume generators include e-commerce, distribution, and operation centers. 

 

PILOT 2

The second LRI pilot will identify best practices around logistics for end-users that generate less than one truckload per month of release liner.  To accomplish this, RRS will identify recycling mills willing to test the compatibility of release liner commingled in corrugated cardboard bales. The pilot will develop the necessary specifications and invite additional participation of small generators of release liner, such as retailers, manufacturers, and others.