Protective film of UFA-Revue new with 70 percent recycled content

Thomas Keller, Managing Director of pmc AG (left) and Markus Röösli, Editorial and Publishing Director of UFA-Revue (right), present the October issue of UFA-Revue, packaged in foil with 70 percent recycled content. (Image: Hans Weber)

Those responsible for UFA-Revue together with the printing company PMC, a company of the Schellenberg Group, have found a more ecological variant for the packaging. Starting with the latest October issue, the protective film of UFA-Revue has a recycled content of at least 70 percent. With this step, the trade magazine is one of the first print titles in Switzerland with such a high proportion of recycled plastic. The monthly title, which has a circulation of over 72,000 copies, saves around 1.54 tons of virgin plastic per year, which corresponds to a saving of almost five tons of CO2.

Recycled plastic improves the eco-balance

Recycling plastic is generally more environmentally friendly and less raw materials such as petroleum are consumed. This conserves natural resources and helps save CO2. Packaging expert Roland Hischier from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa) in St. Gallen confirms this: "The higher the recycled content of plastic packaging, the better the eco-balance. Paper envelopes are not an alternative, because their eco-balance is clearly worse due to their significantly higher weight.

Protective film therefore remains the number one method for securely mailing magazines in terms of handling and environmental footprint. And with the waste film content of 70 percent, even more so. "The topic of sustainability is central to agriculture and therefore also important editorially," says Markus Röösli, publishing and editorial director of UFA-Revue. "By increasing the recycled content of the protective film, we are now not merely reporting on sustainable topics, but are making an active contribution to conserving resources," Röösli continues. In addition, the film is 100 percent recyclable and can thus be returned to the plastic cycle.

Great demand for sustainable packaging solutions

The new type of protective film was introduced in cooperation with the PMC print shop. Thomas Keller, Managing Director of the print shop, notices a general rethinking among customers. The desire for more sustainable solutions is increasingly an issue, he says. "After the go-ahead with UFA-Revue, we will completely switch our foil stock to ECO recycled foil with 70 percent recycled waste foil and thus use this foil as standard." In total, this will save the print shop up to 50 tons of new plastic, which equates to a saving of up to 160 tons of CO2.