About FoilCycle
FoilCycle is a DEFRA-approved foil recycling and recovery scheme founded by UK print industry leaders, Dayfold Group and Foilco.
Dayfold Group
dayfoldgroup.comDayfold creates premium print and packaging experiences for some of the world’s best-known brands. Dayfold managed the creation and certification of the FoilCycle recycling scheme
Foilco
foilco.comFoilco supplies the world’s widest range of stamping foil shades and finishes to the print industry. Foilco was the first UK foil producer to offer the ZeroFoil2Landfill foil recovery scheme to its customers in 2017. FoilCycle is the next evolution.
Creating The Circular Foil Economy
Stamping foil is the ultimate in luxury print embellishment, giving brands a creative edge and their products greater shelf appeal. Now foil use can be sustainable! We recycle and recover used foil, so brands can specify foil and printers can use foil with confidence.
In commercial printing foil is supplied on rolls, with several micro-thin layers coated onto a lightweight ‘carrier’ of polyurethane (PET) film. The foiled image is often applied using just heat and pressure, so it’s a clean and dry process – but after foiling, what remains is the PET film with any used foil, and the inner cardboard core of the roll itself.
Without FoilCycle, those left-overs are usually disposed of with commercial waste - they’re incinerated or sent to landfill. While printers can optimise use of the foil on the roll, they’re still left with the roll itself.
FoilCycle solves this problem by collecting used foil from UK printers and recycling it to recover the PET, any aluminium from metallic foils, and the cardboard core of the roll.
The recovered materials can now be re-used. FoilCycle turns the PET film into recycled PET flakes for use in new products, and recovers the aluminium and cardboard for re-use by industry, creating a clean, sustainable, circular foil economy.
Our Recycling Partners
Terracycle
terracycle.comTerraCycle has an unrivalled reputation for recycling materials that were previously considered difficult or impossible to recycle. TerraCycle handles the physical recycling and recovery process for the FoilCycle scheme.
Suez
suez.co.ukSuez is a pioneer of sustainable solutions and innovative technologies for the UK’s circular economy. Suez handles the logistics infrastructure for the FoilCycle scheme.
Who Benefits From FoilCycle?
FoilCycle makes foil print and packaging sustainable for everyone in the UK.
Brands can use premium foil finishes with confidence, knowing that the used foil is recovered through a sustainable DEFRA-approved process.
Choose FoilCycle members as your print/packaging partners.
DEFRA-Approved Scheme
The FoilCycle scheme has been certified and licensed by DEFRA, the UK Government Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. The certification and license were issued in 2024 following a detailed Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) that considers the end-to-end recycling process.
If you would like the detail, you can find the latest FoilCycle LCA here.
