Two Sides: Lifecycle (CONT’D FROM PAGE 30)
Board Converting NEWS INTERNET DIRECTORY
terials, paper recycling is a stark exception. While the recycling rate of other materials is as low as the single digits – for example, the U.S. Environmental Pro- tection Agency reports the recycling rate for plastics is just 8.7 percent – 66 percent of all paper products in the Unit- ed States and 70 percent in Canada are being recycled. This is near the theoretical maximum recycling rate when items like hygiene products and long-held items such as archived records and books are excluded. For those grades that can be almost entirely recovered and reused, such as corrugated cardboard boxes, recycling rates are higher than 90 percent. This level of success is only possible because the pa- per industry and consumers interact in the free market that drives the paper lifecycle. Since the early 90s, manufac- turers have voluntarily responded to the market’s need for greater supplies of recovered fiber with massive voluntary investment in capital-intensive machinery and transport. And according to the American Forest and Paper Asso- ciation (AF&PA), U.S. pulp and packaging producers are committed to investing an additional $4.1 billion in man- ufacturing infrastructure between 2019 and 2023. Now, approximately 80 percent of all U.S. paper mills use some recovered fiber to make everything from paper-based packaging and printing papers to newspaper and tis- sue. The continuing investment in recycling technology is allowing paper manufacturers to reach further into the wastepaper stream to use fiber that was previously unre- coverable. In fact, the AF&PA’s just-released Design Guidance for Recyclability tackles one of the remaining challenges to even higher recycling rates for paper-based packaging. The Guide provides a clear understanding of how packag- ing gets recycled in paper mills and how various non-fiber elements (inks, coatings, adhesives, polymer windows, et. al) affect the recyclability of paper-based packaging. It’s intended to help consumer products companies and their manufacturing supply chain partners more effectively de- sign and produce packaging that meets growing customer demand for recyclability. At the other end of the lifecycle, millions of households and tens of thousands of North America’s businesses and municipalities willingly participate in what amounts to a continent-wide partnership with industry, driven by pa- per’s ease of recovery and decades of local investment in the collection infrastructure. A 2014 survey found that 96 percent of Americans have access to community curb- side or drop-off paper recycling programs, or both. Access numbers for Canadians are in the 94 to 96 percent range. However, in a blind rush to address other materials that have never come close to the recycling rates of paper, especially those like plastics that don’t readily degrade in the environment and that often contain toxic substanc- es, some state governments are considering actions that CONTINUED ON PAGE 34
THE HAIRE GROUP www.hairegroup.com
Haire Group is the premier provider of new machinery for the corrugated industry. As the exclusive US & Canadian agent for one of the largest machinery manufacturers in the world, Haire Group is able to pair clients with the best machinery solutions for the best value to meet their spe- cific needs. As an operating partner of the US-based DFA Technical Support Center (a joint venture of Haire Group and Dong Fang), Haire Group delivers top-notch 24/7 pro- fessional, reliable service and support, maximizing quality and uptime. Additionally, Haire Group has been the indus- try’s #1 pre-owned machinery broker and plant equipment appraiser since 1976. HarperLove is the leading provider of specialty adhesives, performance additives, and wet-strength resins to corru- gated packaging manufacturers. With the largest and most experienced field service and technical support team posi- tioned throughout the U.S. and Latin America, HarperLove has a long-standing reputation for providing outstanding service and delivering demonstrable performance improve- ments. HarperLove’s renowned services include not only innovative product development and custom product for- mulation, but also machine and process assessments, ad- hesive formula adjustments, machine tuning, detailed ser- vice reporting, and more. HARPERLOVE www.HarperLove.com
KIWIPLAN www.kiwiplan.com
Kiwiplan - premier worldwide software provider of enter- prise-wide, fully automatic solutions specifically for the cor- rugating and packaging industries. Kiwiplan’s Total Solution delivers comprehensive, seamless real-time flow of infor- mation from sales order management to dynamic total plant scheduling and inventory control through shipping.
MAROTECH INC. www.marotech.com
Manufacturer of Marotape®, Marotape®Plus, Marotape® FPT and MaroString™; hot melt coated tapes and strings used for reinforcement and easy-open features for pack- aging. Marotech Inc. also manufactures state-of-the-art dispensing and tape placement equipments to optimize the productivity of applying hot melt coated tapes in pack- aging.
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April 5, 2021
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