Trying times for tonnage

In 2023, the last time Recycling Today published its list of North America’s largest recovered paper consumers, the year started with sluggish box demand and soft pricing for bulk grades—similar to what we’ve seen in 2025.

However, the major difference is that in 2023, recovered paper consumption picked up throughout the year, and prices appeared to be recovering. Unfortunately, that has not been the story this time around.

According to research by Recycling Today and Atlanta-based consultancy Moore & Associates, in the two years since our last list, North American recovered fiber consumption is down, with mills consuming approximately 25.1 million tons of recovered fiber based on 2024 data, down from 30.8 million tons in 2022 ago and 27.8 million tons in 2020.

Same players, new teams

Atop this year’s list sit many familiar faces as the top seven North American recovered paper consumers remain unchanged from our 2023 list.

Smurfit Westrock and International Paper (IP), which ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in our last list, have tied for the No. 1 spot, though both companies have undergone major changes in the last two years.

Last year, Dublin-based packaging company Smurfit Kappa merged with then WestRock—the largest recovered fiber consumer in North America—creating one of the largest paper companies in the world. As Smurfit Kappa’s operations largely were based outside North America, the addition of Atlanta-based WestRock didn’t significantly boost either player’s North American consumption.

Meanwhile, Memphis, Tennessee-based IP acquired DS Smith, a London-based paper packaging company, this year, a move similar to the Smurfit Westrock deal in which a company with primarily North American operations acquired one with operations largely outside the continent, therefore not significantly boosting its North American consumption.

Both companies consumed about 3.5 million tons of recovered paper in 2024, down from the nearly 5.5 million consumed two years ago and have focused on streamlining operations and taking offline older, less efficient mills. Smurfit Westrock alone has removed about 500,000 tons of capacity from the market over the last year.

The second-largest consumer in North America on this year’s list is Conyers, Georgia-based Pratt Industries, which has upped its intake to 2.7 million tons compared with 2.38 million tons two years ago, closing the gap slightly with IP and Smurfit Westrock and making it one of four companies on the list to increase recovered paper consumption since 2022.

Costing the company $700 million, Pratt’s 100 percent-recycled paper mill and corrugated box plant in Henderson, Kentucky, opened in September 2023 and has contributed to its increase in total consumption. It’s Pratt’s sixth recycled paper mill in the U.S.

No. 3 Cascades, which tied with Georgia-Pacific, consumed 2 million tons compared with 2.23 million tons two years ago, however, that number could start to increase again as the Kingsey Falls, Quebec-based company ramps up production at its recycled containerboard mill in Ashland Virginia.

The mill started up in 2023 and has continued to ramp up production. At startup, Cascades said the site was expected to produce 465,000 tons of lightweight, recycled containerboard annually. In the third quarter of this year, the company reported that production at the Bear Island mill increased 24 percent to just over 102,000 tons.

“We have continued to see this positive operational pace in October, and we are forecasting a strong end of 2025,” President and CEO Hugues Simon said during an earnings call Nov. 6.

He said, the mill ran at 90 percent of its targeted ramp-up curve and 88 percent of its total production capacity for the quarter, while it is running at 80 percent capacity overall.

Georgia-Pacific and No. 4 Bio Pappel round out the six biggest recovered paper consumers, which is unchanged from two years ago. Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific consumed 2 million tons, down slightly from 2.1 million tons in 2022, while Mexico City-based Bio Pappel’s 1.93 million tons are down from 2.05 million.

Notable facility opening

Arguably one of the biggest stories impacting North American recovered paper consumption is the opening of Graphic Packaging International’s (GPI’s) recycled paperboard mill in Waco, Texas.

Atlanta-based GPI moved to No. 5 on this year’s list (tied with Packaging Corp. of America), up from No. 10 on the 2023 list. GPI reported 1.5 million tons of recovered paper consumed as it starts up production in Waco.

The $1 billion project is part of its broader investment in more efficient recycled paperboard production.

Plans for the project were announced in February 2023 as part of the company’s broader mill network optimization strategy. GPI’s recycled paperboard mill network includes another site in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which started up in January 2022, while recycled paperboard mills in Middletown, Ohio, and East Angus, Quebec, have closed as part of the company’s streamlining efforts. According to CEO Michael Doss, the startups and closures likely will add “just a couple of percent” of total recycled paperboard market capacity—about 75,000 tons.

The Waco mill is expected to produce 1,500 tons per day of coated recycled paperboard (CRB), and the site will employ a similar system to the one used in Kalamazoo. After decommissioning its K3 CRB machine in Kalamazoo in October 2023, GPI will use three paper machines between its Kalamazoo and Waco sites to produce a combined 4,500 tons per day of recycled paperboard.

The Waco and Kalamazoo mills total more than $2 billion in investments.

Full production in Waco is expected in the next 12-18 months.

“Waco is a critical enabler for the consumer packaging we sell, improving surety of supply, reducing waste, allowing us to only offer the highest quality packaging materials and expanding the markets our recycled paperboard packaging can serve,” Doss said in November. “Having Waco in our system gives us competitive advantage that will last for decades.”

The author is managing editor of Recycling Today and can be reached at mmcnees@gie.net.