BASF and Avery Dennison have announced a collaboration to bring renewable electricity-based acrylates to market, with significant implications for the RFID industry. The new products, Butyl acrylate RE and 2-Ethylhexyl acrylate RE, are manufactured at BASF’s Freeport, Texas facility using wind and solar energy, and are set to play a key role in the adhesives used to bond RFID inlays to labels and tags.
Acrylic esters are a critical raw material in pressure-sensitive adhesives, the very adhesives that secure RFID inlays within smart labels used across retail, logistics, and supply chain applications. By switching to acrylates produced with renewable electricity, manufacturers of RFID inlay tags can reduce the carbon footprint of their products without any compromise on performance. BASF confirms the new acrylates are functionally equivalent to their conventional counterparts and work as drop-in replacements, meaning no retooling or reformulation is needed on the production line.
For the RFID sector, this is a meaningful step forward. As major retailers and logistics providers push for greener supply chains, the environmental credentials of every component in an RFID tag come under scrutiny. The adhesive layer that bonds a UHF RFID inlay to its substrate is no exception. With billions of RFID inlay tags produced each year for applications ranging from garment tagging to pallet tracking, even modest reductions in per-unit emissions add up quickly at scale.
Avery Dennison, one of the world’s largest producers of RFID inlays and smart labels, was the first company to commercialise these renewable energy acrylates. The move supports the company’s target of a 30% reduction in Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions and aligns with broader industry efforts to decarbonise the RFID supply chain from raw materials through to finished tags.
“This accomplishment highlights the power of investing in responsible production and efficient, future-ready operations,” said Michael Limbach, Vice President at BASF’s Performance Chemicals division. Collins Oluka, Vice President of Global Procurement and Sustainability at Avery Dennison, added that innovations like renewable-energy-enabled acrylic esters help advance the company’s long-term sustainability goals.
The collaboration signals a growing trend in the RFID industry: sustainability is no longer limited to how tags are used, but extends to how they are made. As RAIN RFID adoption continues to accelerate across retail, healthcare, and logistics, the demand for greener inlay production will only increase. Partnerships like this one between BASF and Avery Dennison demonstrate that reducing emissions and maintaining product quality can go hand in hand.