We are always asked just how ‘GREEN’ foil is. In short, foil is a very green print finish, exceeding many industry standards.
Firstly, what is often referred to as ‘foil’ is actually a decorative aluminium transfer material. This is then applied to other materials, such a paper in a number of ways with the most well-known being hot-stamp foiling.
This layer of ‘foil’, or decorative transfer material, is 6,000 times thinner than a human hair. To put this into perspective, the amount of aluminium used to produce a typical coffee capsule would decorate the equivalent of five parking spaces if used as a transfer material.
The ‘foil’ layer itself is recyclable, compostable and contains no harmful ingredients. In applying the foil layer to the print material, providing the substrate the ‘foil’ is applied is recyclable too, you aren’t affecting its recyclability at all. Actually, when the paper is being deinked in the recycling process, the ‘foil’ layer is also removed.
As supplied, our ‘foil’ rolls consist of a PET carrier sheet, which holds the decorative transfer layer, or ‘foil’.
With the help of the heated plate and the stamping die created to match your design, heat and pressure are applied to the KURZ product. As a result, the ‘foil’ layer releases from the PET and is applied to your print material.
PET is free from hazardous substances. It remains a raw material in terms of the industrial waste cycle, making re-use easier. The majority of our scrap PET carriers are currently used to create energy and are a
non-hazardous alternative to coal, gas or oil.
However, the nature of PET is always changing and after many years of development, we have managed to develop the world’s first recycling plant for PET waste. Our plant now enables us to utilise the residual PET carrier to create recycled materials that go back into our production process.
