Domestic OCC recovery rate nears 93 percent

The Corrugated Packaging Alliance (CPA), Itasca, Illinois, has announced that the domestic recovery of old corrugated containers (OCC) increased by 3.7 percent in 2015, pushing the figure for the year to a record 92.9 percent.

In a news release, the CPA says the increase was driven by a 3.5 percent increase in domestic consumption of recovered fiber and a 10.6 percent jump in OCC exports.

The record for 2015 follows a trend, as reported by the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA ), Washington, which notes that OCC recovery has been climbing steadily since the 1990s.

More than 51 percent of OCC recovered in 2015 was used to make new containerboard, which, on average, include about 50 percent recycled content. An additional 11.5 percent was used to make boxboard and more than 32 percent was exported.

The CPA is a corrugated industry initiative, jointly sponsored by the AF&PA, AICC – the Independent Packaging Association, the Fibre Box Association (FBA) and TAPPI.

Other key paper stock grades and their patterns for 2015 were mixed. Trending downward, the recovery of old newspaper (ONP)/mechanical papers declined by 7 percent for the year. However, the AF&PA reports, new supply of the grade (domestic production plus imports less exports) declined by 11.4 percent. The result was the overall recovery rate for the grade increased from 69.2 percent in 2014 to 72.8 percent in 2015.

The AF&PA also notes that the recovery of printing and writing paper (P&W) increased to 58.6 percent in 2015, compared to 53 percent in 2013 and 57.7 percent last year. Despite the increase, the association notes that the actual tonnage of P&W papers recovered for recycling declined 3.3 percent in 2015, but new supply dropped an even sharper 4.9 percent.

In total, the domestic paper recovery rate increased by 1.4 percent in 2015 to a record 66.8 percent. The previous high point for U.S. fiber recovered was 66.4 percent, which was recorded in 2011.

Domestic consumption of recovered paper at U.S. mills increased 1.2 percent in 2015 to 30.9 million tons, while net recovered paper exports advanced by 2.5 percent to 20.7 million tons.