Board Converting News, December 25, 2023

PMMI Report Shows Labor Shortage, E-Commerce Driving Automation PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, announced a report it produced showing that labor and skills shortages are pushing consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies to invest in warehouse automation solutions. The report, Packaging and Automation in the Ware- houses of the Future, also shows that growing e-com- merce activity and rising direct-to-consumer demands have resulted in warehousing and fulfillment operations becoming more complex, increasing the demand for mixed and layered pallets. With these new trends, CPG companies are turning to warehouse automation solutions such as palletizers and mobile robots, according to the PMMI report. More than one in four (25 percent) warehouses will have some form of automation installed by 2027, leaping from just 14 per- cent in 2017 and 18 percent at the end of 2021. The PMMI survey shows that less than 20 percent of CPG firms op- erate mostly automated warehouses today, and very few report they are fully automated. PACK EXPO East, set for March 18–20, 2024 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, in Philadelphia will be an opportunity to explore some of the latest warehouse automation solutions. Visit packexpoeast.com .

Revisiting Paper (CONT’D FROM PAGE 16)

Recycling is essential to the Canadian paper packaging industry’s long-standing and successful circular economy, and allows raw materials to flow for longer, reducing the need to extract virgin materials. The average recycled content for domestic shipments of containerboard and boxboard – used to make some of the most common forms of paper-based packaging such as corrugated cardboard and paperboard – is just over 80 percent, according to PPEC’s 2022 Recycled Content Sur- vey Report. PPEC member companies are good at making recycla- ble products out of recycled materials. It’s at the core of what they do every day, and in many cases, our members have their own recycling divisions to make sure they have a good supply of recycled paper fibres to use as their pri- mary feedstock. That approach didn’t just start now, or even a few years ago, it has been an inherent part of our industry’s business models for decades. We’re not here to pit materials against each other, but when the term “circular economy” is thrown around so much it can dilute the meaning of what it means to truly have a circular economy. And the paper packaging indus- try truly has an effective and successful circular economy. Rachel Kagan is the Executive Director of the Paper & Paperboard Packaging Environmental Council (PPEC).

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18 December 25, 2023

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