Introducing Our Environmentally Friendly Tapes

Like most packaging businesses we are acutely aware of the desire of our customers to reduce waste, reduce plastic and help to increase the amount of recycled packaging passing through our supply chains. For years at Windmill we’ve offered the only 100% recyclable, 100% biodegradable packaging tapes in our gum paper tape ranges. Funnily enough gum paper tapes were the first products we sold when we started back in 1980 and we’ve kept the range going ever since but there’s no question in the last couple of years we’ve seen a noticeable increase in demand for these products.

We haven’t rested on our laurels though and are constantly looking to enhance our environmental credentials and over the last 2-3 years we’ve introduced other environmentally friendly tapes to complement the range such that we know have a full range of plain and printed gum tapes and can offer plain and printed self-adhesive paper tapes. Finally, in the last 6 months we’ve also launched the first self-adhesive paper tape made from 100% recycled paper.

Taking each of these products in turn gum paper tapes are the gold standard when it comes to the environment. Paper is taken from managed forests in Scandinavia and the adhesive is a formulated vegetable glue based on potato starch. As such this range is 100% recyclable and 100% biodegradable leaving a negligible footprint on the environment when compared to plastic self-adhesive tapes more commonly used. We offer these tapes in various weights to cover a range of applications and supply both plain and printed options too. Gum paper tapes require specific dispensing equipment and accepting that not everyone wishes to go this route we also have a range of self-adhesive paper tapes in both plain and printed option where the customer wishes to continue with existing handheld dispensers.

Interestingly whilst these are self-adhesive tapes, they can be claimed to be recyclable if they are applied to a complimentary material such as cardboard and corrugate and they do not exceed 20% of the total weight. This is outlined in EN13430 which defines the requirements for packaging recoverable by material recycling. Lastly, we’ve recently launched a new self-adhesive paper tape made from 100% recycled paper.Again, available in both plain and print this is the first self-adhesive paper tape that is both made from 100% recycled paper and can be claimed to be recyclable too.

So, if you or your clients are looking to enhance their environmental credentials and you genuinely care about the environment do please give us a call or drop us and email so we can explain in greater detail what the options are.