P+PB President Cites Corporate, Market Changes Behind Shutdown Following the recent announcement that the Paper and Packaging Board (P+PB) will shut down its more than de- cade-old marketing campaign, P+PB President Mary Anne Hansan pointed to broader corporate and market chang- es and the difficulty of aligning shifting priorities between paper and packaging stakeholders as key factors behind the decision. “Every referendum, it’s been increasingly more difficult to keep people on board,” Hansan said. “And many times, just like this time, it really has to do [with] what’s going on in the economy. The paper market has been contracting for years,” she said. P+PB launched in 2014 as a U.S. Department of Ag-
riculture research and promotion program, or so-called “checkoff” program, with an aim of expanding and devel- oping paper-based packaging markets. A group of major manufacturers and importers funded the program through
mandatory fees. In July, just 26 percent of companies vot- ed in favor of continuing the program, meaning it did not receive the necessary majority support. On the corrugated side, companies are concerned about extended producer re- sponsibility, Hansan said. Ad-
Mary Anne Hansan
ditionally, there’s been a lot of leadership turnover from the executives who were in charge when P+PB was de- veloped and launched. “We’ve had an awful lot of CEO change,” Hansan said.
Domtar, whose president of paper and packaging operations most recently served as P+PB’s chair, said in an emailed statement it’s proud of the collaboration. “While the program is unfortunately dis- continued, Domtar will proudly continue the board’s powerful legacy as true pap- ertarians.” These types of USDA programs require one referendum at least once every seven years. P+PB’s first one was about six and a half years into the program, in 2020, Han- san said. The next one was just a few years later, still during the COVID-19 pandemic, “and people were really nervous about the economy and what was going to happen,” Hansan said. Participants agreed to revisit things in three years. In 2023, the vote was close, Hansan said, but she wasn’t privy to the actual breakdown, as that’s managed by USDA, she said. Contributing participants can seek a petition if they want another refer- endum sooner than the rules call for. Han- san said that earlier this year, USDA noti- fied her that it got a request for another referendum. Pulp and paper company Suzano echoed some recent challenges in an emailed statement. “In the post-Covid era, it has become more challenging to get companies to fund additional marketing expenditure – a real- ity the P&PB became exposed to. But the greatest strength was that it encouraged collaboration between senior leaders of paper and packaging companies work- ing towards a common goal of consumer
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September 1, 2025
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