SAISAG may be gone, but its message lives on

Sustainability is of growing concern across all formats of the print industry.

There are almost as many ways of dealing with waste and products as companies are looking to help reduce it with each one bringing its suggestions to the table.

Almost one year ago, 13 businesses from the self-adhesive industry united under one body to create a cohesive strategy for combating excess waste.

Labelled the Self-Adhesive Industry Sustainability Action Group (SAISAG), everyone signed agreed to share ideas for making the industry greener, all under the leadership of chair, Steve Lister.

Almost simultaneously FESPA UK had also made changes to its Waste Accreditation project which it started two years prior.

The scheme was set up in hopes of finding ways to recycle a range of materials used in the Print, Signage, and Graphic business, and this year it added siliconised papers and self-adhesive vinyl to its list – similar to SAISAG’s intentions.

Now SAISAG is no more with members opting to work with FESPA UK and its newly updated scheme. But what happened?

At its conception, SAISAG had 13 founding members: Pyramid Display, Greens the Signmakers, 3M, Antalis, William Smith, Metamark, Avery Dennison, Arlon, Spandex, Contra Vision, RGVA, OPG, and Reconomy.

In an update provided to FESPA UK in September, Steve was quoted as saying: “We started SAISAG for a very particular reason. It had never been done before – we had never got this amount of competitors in a room to discuss anything – but we set out with the goal of sustainability.

“We needed to do this because, to succeed in anything to do with sustainability, you need to collaborate – no one can do it alone.

“We found pockets of work being done within some of our founder members – 3M was looking at something, Metamark had set up its recycling scheme, and Avery Dennison was doing something else.

According to Steve, the start hit some reluctance between businesses as they feared giving too much away to competitors, but slowly the group relaxed and started sharing ideas.

“There were some massive positives but we realised people had different approaches.

“For example, Metamark had its scheme already, so they knew how difficult it was to collect face film; and backhaul it, so we decided to start looking at trials of collecting it.”

Soon the group started working with Jon Hutton from Reconomy, who was also a key member in creating FESPA UK’s waste project.

Managing director of FESPA UK, Suzi Ward, said: “As of July this year, Jon officially joined the FESPA UK team, further strengthening our commitment to this initiative.

“Our Waste Accreditation was established three years ago – well before the formation of the SAISAG group.

“Over the years, we’ve worked diligently to expand the scheme, identifying recycling solutions for materials commonly used in print, signage, and graphic businesses.

“This year, we successfully added siliconised papers and self-adhesive vinyl to the materials we can recycle.

“This development attracted significant interest from SAISAG group members, who have since chosen to support our accreditation and become industry champions for the project.

“Operating under the neutral umbrella of FESPA UK enables competitors to collaborate and share essential information to advance the project while safeguarding their sensitive business data.”

Contra Vision was one such company which transferred to FESPA UK’s scheme.

Nick Rigg, head of products and IP at the company said: “FESPA approached us around May 2024 with information that they had a recycling solution in place for self-adhesive vinyl and liners in the UK.

“Meanwhile Steve Lister and other members from the SAISAG group were attempting to trial a process with a waste processor, but it had taken longer than they’d hoped for whatever reason.

“Contra Vision is very keen to promote a way to recycle self-adhesive vinyl and we’re excited to promote a solution that accomplishes this.

“We have several environmental goals for both our products and our business which we can share more about shortly. Overall, it was great to hear how other businesses are working towards their environmental initiatives and to see what is possible in the SAV sector.

“We hope that as more businesses sign up for the scheme, the increase in volumes will make the whole system work more efficiently, and we can share success stories and look to replicate this in more regions around the world.”

As a body, SAISAG is no more but it doesn’t mean to say its message has been lost. Instead, FESPA UK has seemingly taken on the mantle of self-adhesive recycling.

Suzi said: “The companies’ support allows them to refer their clients to FESPA UK, enabling us to provide comprehensive waste management solutions that address all types of company waste—not just specific materials.”

Jon said: “The waste accreditation initiative will leverage insights from business leaders at the Annual Graphics Sustainability Summit on November 28 to refine and expand its framework.

“FESPA UK is committed to exploring innovative recycling solutions and aims to support FESPA global associations in developing similar accreditation programs in their regions.

“Plans include introducing drop-off points and collection services at derigging sites to streamline waste management efforts.”

But what of Steve Lister? Well, he still hasn’t given up the sustainability fight.

Along with consultation work, he also writes on the topic for FESPA, as well as running sustainability courses for Make It Happen and working with POPAI UK and Ireland.

He said: “The original idea for SAISAG was to bring organisations together and to create a recycling scheme for the materials. We achieved that, the only thing was that SAISAG effectively morphed itself into the FESPA UK Waste Management programme.

“But it wasn’t acrimonious because we had achieved our original goal, albeit with a different organisation.

“Sustainability is a journey, not a destination. We’ll never get to the point where we have achieved everything because things are constantly changing.

“At the moment, that change is happening probably quicker than ever before. So having a group of these fantastic brands working together with FESPA UK will only make it easier to solve some of the biggest challenges, today and in the future.”