Canada hits high recycled-content paperboard mark

The Brampton, Ontario, Canada-based Paper and Paperboard Packaging Environmental Council (PPEC) says its most recent survey results indicate Canada’s containerboard packaging producers used recovered paper at an 81 percent rate in 2022.

“The latest report represents the results of the 17th biennial Recycled Content survey, which is conducted to determine the average recycled content contained in the major paper packaging grades made by Canadian mills,” says the PPEC.

According to PPEC, its 2022 survey results show the average recycled content of domestic shipments for the top two major packaging grades was 80.2 percent. The average recycled content for domestic shipments of boxboard was 86. percent while the average recycled content for domestic shipments of containerboard was 81 percent.

“These latest results continue to validate the success of our industry’s circular economy in collecting and recycling paper-based packaging and ensuring they are remade into new products again and again,” says Chris Bartlett, board chair of the PPEC.

Adds Bartlett, who also is an executive with Ontario-based Tencorr Packaging, “With a recycled content rate of over 80 percent and confirmation that our boxboard and containerboard made in Canada is primarily recycled content fibers, we are proud of the progress our industry has and continues to make.”

The PPEC says that while mills produce the raw material used to make paper-based packaging, with the majority favoring recycled content, that product is then sent to a converter, where it is made into packaging products.

Closing the loop, once products are used by customers, typically they are recycled, “making its way back to the mill to be remade into new paper packaging products.”

“As an industry, we are committed to environmental sustainability and waste minimization,” says Rachel Kagan, executive director of the PPEC. “This survey reminds us of the importance of recycling, and that every action taken can make a big impact.”