The Sara Lee Household and Body Care facility in Slough, U.K., produced 250 million units in fiscal year 2008. All of these bottles have front and back labels applied to them during the production process. The labels arrive on large reels, which are coated with silicone to allow for fast and easy release during application. Once the labels had been applied to the bottles, the leftover paper material from the reels remained. Since the paper was coated with silicone, it could not be recycled and was being sent to the landfill for disposal. In February 2008, the Slough facility partnered with Channeled Resources, Inc. USA (www.channeledresources.com) and their U.K. subsidiary, Maratech, to develop a process to remove the silicone coating. This process has reduced the amount of landfilled paper by almost 50%.
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