Eco-friendly tapes

The ecology is a subject that is currently becoming of concern to consumers to an ever-increasing degree. Tesa is finding this out through the growth rates in the office supplies segment of its “Eco Logo” products, a range that was launched in 2009 and has been available in the retail trade from early 2010: last year sales of this product group through the static trade grew by 27 per cent, whereas the figure was 16 per cent in 2010. Now these products are also available for distribution through DIY stores. This product range, which features green packaging and an additional logo identifying it as a sub-brand, now includes more than 20 products from classic Tesa-Film sticky tape to adhesive rollers. New additions this year will be a masking tape, a double-sided tape, a repairing tape and the Eco version of Tesa’s strapping tape. All Eco Logo products have one remarkable feature in common: they are manufactured from recycled materials (according to ISO 14021), though to varying degrees. The recycled share ranges from 64 per cent for repairing tape, for instance, to 100 per cent in the case of double-sided tape. Over and above this, use is also made of bio-based raw materials. One example of this is the Eco repair tape, where the fibre involved comes from wood. The manufacturer believes that considerable savings can be made in resources when compared with the use of cotton as the raw material: the yield per unit of area is four times higher and water consumption is twenty times lower because the eucalyptus and beech trees used require no watering. Moreover, they are not in competition with the production of food since they are undemanding in terms of where they grow. In the Eco Logo line Tesa has completely done away with bleaching, which involves the use of chlorine dioxide (Cl02), a toxic gas. This has the added advantage that an average of seven per cent less wood, the raw material here, is required for the same output. Tesa can see no impairment of quality when it comes to adhesive tapes from recycled materials either. On the contrary: for the production of the Eco Fixation double-sided tape a new type of foil (MOPP) was chosen, which actually sticks better and is more easily removed into the bargain. As stated by Tesa, the intention is to avoid any lowering of the company’s standards in terms of product quality. The aim is not to achieve a standard that is “environmentally friendly and 100 per cent quality” but one that is “100 per cent quality and…