Why we’re so passionate about linerless

Label waste has been a challenge for the labeling industry for decades, with millions of tons of waste sent to landfills and incinerators every year. Through initiatives such as our AD Circular program and industry efforts like CELAB, we can all help reduce label waste. But the best solution — for our industry and for the planet — is to remove liners altogether where possible.

To tackle this challenge, we’ve been developing a new linerless platform that also allows us to meet our own sustainability goals. Those include a commitment to reducing GHG emissions — such as our pledge to reduce emissions in our supply chain by 30% (compared to our 2018 baseline) and our aspiration to reach “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050. Eliminating label liners significantly reduces the consumption of materials, fossil fuels and energy as well as lowers related carbon emissions in production and across the supply chain.

Unlocking the opportunities of linerless labels

To provide our customers with linerless labels, we've been developing and creating a range of different technologies. Our easy-to-use decorative linerless solutions AD LinrSave™  and  AD LinrConvert™ are a new generation of decorative linerless labels enabled by Avery Dennison’s patented micro-perforation technology that ensures the functionality and shelf appeal of pressure-sensitive labels while making significant CO2 and water savings. As well, born linerless from start to finish, our sustainable linerless solution for variable information (VI) labels is AD XeroLinr DT™ — our FSC-certified and phenol-free direct thermal (DT) linerless label.

How we’re helping converters and brands

Labels with liners aren’t disappearing right away, but linerless labels are definitely the future. Making the transition will be a journey for converters and brands — and for us too.

Avery Dennison will continue to offer standard labels with liners. But where we can, by providing training and technical assistance to converters as well as supplying inexpensive conversion kits and expertise to brands, we will closely support all of our customers and end users to make the switch over time to more efficient and sustainable linerless labels. 

Ultimately, it all comes down to a simple but very important goal — together, let’s make our entire industry and those we serve more sustainable.