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The Sustainability Advantage of
Paperboard Packaging
Paperboard Packaging is
inherently sustainable
considering it’s lifecycle
and it’s many other advantages:
Materials Sourcing
A sustainable material using
specially-raised crop trees,
waste products like sawdust and
wood chips, and recycled
paper/paperboard fibers.
Sustainable wood fiber from
farm-raised trees is the primary
raw material in paperboard
packaging. The forest products
industry plants 1.7 million
trees a day - which exceeds the
number of trees harvested.
Further, paperboard is
recyclable2,
and collected fiber returns to
the mill for paperboard
production.
Physical Design
Improved designs and
manufacturing processes have
reduced raw material needed
without sacrificing performance.
Reduced need for labels or
additional information
displays—most information and
brand information needed can be
printed on paperboard. The
weight of paperboard has fallen
while board strength has
increased allowing packages to
be designed with lighter,
thinner paperboard.
Clean Production
Continuous improvement in
production processes and new
materials.
Modern paperboard production has
limited chemical usage and
lowered air emissions in
paperboard production.
Effective Recovery
Paperboard packaging is a
valuable resource considering
that the fibers in paperboard
packaging can be recycled, and
usually are, multiple times.
Over 57 percent of Americans
have easy access to paperboard
recycling, up from 46 percent in
20002.
Additionally, the number of
communities collecting
paperboard for recycling
increased to 41 percent in 20052.
Paperboard can also be reused
prior to recycling to store
other materials after its
contents have been used, and it
is often re- used in schools for
art, history, and science
projects, etc
Waste Management
Paperboard fiber can be
recycled, biodegraded,
composted, or incinerated to
produce energy.
Recovered paper accounted for
37.1 percent2
of the U.S. paper industry’s
fiber needs in 2004. Recovery
for all wood fiber based
products is even higher.
1. The
Sustainable Packaging Coalition
(www.sustainablepackaging.org)
has developed a definition for a
“sustainable
package.”
It can be seen on their
website.
2. All
statistics plus additional data
on recycling can be found here:
www.paperrecycles.org
Click
here for a PDF handout.
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