WestRock report highlights recovered fiber usage

In its latest sustainability report, Atlanta-based packaging producer WestRock Co. says it used 5.5 million North American tons of recovered fiber in the 2022 fiscal year—79 percent of the total recycled fiber tons the company managed last year.

That is up 2 percentage points from the previous fiscal year and marks the company’s highest percentage of recycled fiber used of the total tons it manages. The number has grown steadily over the past several fiscal years, too. In fiscal year 2019, WestRock reports using 67 percent of the total recycled fiber tons it managed, followed by 71 percent in 2020 and 77 percent in 2021.

Overall, WestRock managed nearly 7.1 million tons of recovered material in fiscal year 2022, with the majority of that material being fiber: 6.98 million tons. The company also managed 38,000 tons of recyclable plastic, 3,700 tons of recyclable aluminum and 61,000 tons of other nonfiber recyclables.

The company also furthered its position as one of the largest old corrugated container (OCC) consumers in North America and highlights a partnership with General Motors (GM) as one of its OCC recycling initiatives. In 2020, WestRock partnered with GM to recycle OCC from five of the automaker’s processing centers, transporting the material to four WestRock mills to be recycled. Last year, the company recycled approximately 17,000 tons of OCC through the partnership.

Virgin fiber, however, still comprised the majority of WestRock’s fiber usage in fiscal year 2022.

The company sourced 64 percent virgin fiber and 36 percent recycled fiber across its mill network, while its consumer mills sourced 72 percent virgin versus 28 percent recycled, and its corrugated mills used 62 percent virgin versus 38 percent recycled fiber.

WestRock’s virgin wood fiber procurement decreased slightly from fiscal year 2021 to fiscal year 2022. The report shows nearly 36.2 million tons of virgin fiber procured across the U.S., Canada and Brazil last year, down from 36.5 million tons in 2021, 37 million tons in 2020 and 39.2 million tons in 2019.

In the report, WestRock does list recycling as one of its priority sustainability topics and says it is “constantly working to advance recycling for our customers and our company.”

The full sustainability report can be found here.