Novolex reports growing importance of recycled content in products

Since 2005, Novolex, a packaging business headquartered in Hartsville, South Carolina, has incorporated 100-percent-recycled content in some of its bag products. However, in more recent years, the company has gone from just a small portion of its bags incorporating 100-percent-recycled content to the majority of its bags—about 87 percent—using 100-percent-recycled content. 

While the company still uses some virgin materials for its paper bag products, Robert Arnold, plant manager at Novolex, says the company is trending toward using solely recycled content. 

“Up until 2005, the plant consumed 100 percent virgin paper,” he says. “Today, 87.5 percent of our total volume produced is from recycled materials. It’s been a significant switch.” 

He adds that much of this increase can be attributed to increasing demand from retailers.

“This is due to a surge in demand from grocery store owners to supply bags that are all recycled content,” says Robert Arnold, plant manager at Novolex. 

According to Novolex, the increase in demand for using 100-percent-recycled content in paper bags has been less about product bans and more driven by the desire of grocers and their customers to reduce environmental impact. The company states that its ability to manufacture bags with 100-percent-recycled content that can perform well under stress has also increased demand among grocers. 

The company states that it noticed an initial surge in demand from grocers to use bags with recycled content in 2007. Novolex reports it noticed a sharp increase between 2014 and 2018, as well. For instance, the company says its Duro brand facility in Alsip, Illinois, produced 72 percent of its bags with 100-percent-recycled content in 2014; just four years later, that facility produced 91 percent of its bags with 100-percent-recycled content in 2018.

Developing paper bag products that use 100-percent-recycled content is a bit more challenging than paper bags using only virgin materials, as virgin fiber creates a stronger sheet, Arnold adds. 

With a demand for incorporating 100-percent-recycled content into bags, Arnold says this need trickles down to demand for recovered fiber from recycling operations in the U.S. 

“Mills need to get their hands on recycled packaging,” he says. 

The company sources its recycled materials from about six paper mills. Arnold says he’s also noticed that more mills are moving away from consuming virgin material and more toward recycled sheet. 

Arnold adds that recent growth in e-commerce has helped to ensure there is sufficient recovered fiber for mills and the corrugated box businesses. He says these materials are good feedstock for the paper rolls used to make Novolex’s bags as well. 

Demand for sustainable products isn’t going away. Arnold says he’s noticed more consumers want a “sustainability story in the packaging they touch.”

“People want to bring packaging home they can recycle,” he says.