ISRI adds specialty paper grade

The board of directors for the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), Washington, voted in March to approve the addition of a new scrap paper grade—37-S Silicon Release Liner—to the association’s “Scrap Specifications Circular.” 

ISRI’s Paper Stock Industries (PSI) chapter proposed the addition of the recovered fiber grade earlier this year as a “Specialty Grade.” Such recovered fiber grades “are produced and traded in carload and truckload quantities throughout the United States and, because of certain characteristics (i.e., the presence of wet strength, polycoatings, plastic, foil, carbon paper, hot melt glue), are not included in the regular grades of paper stock.”

PSI says the original request to add the grade came from CELAB: Toward a Circular Economy for Labels, a coalition of companies in the self-adhesive label industry seeking to establish greater circularity for their products. CELAB submitted its request toward the end of 2021, and an ISRI working group reviewed the request, ultimately recommending the creation of specialty grade 37-S Silicon Release Liner. The ISRI Paper Division approved the working group’s recommendation in February, followed by a minimum 20-day public notice period. The ISRI board then approved the measure at its March 21 spring meeting in Las Vegas. Per ISRI specification approval procedures, a 30-day open comment period followed the board vote, PSI says.

PSI is not establishing specific specifications, which would refer to such factors as the type of wet strength agent used, the percentage of wax, the amount of polycoating, whether it is on top of or under the printing, etc. Rather, PSI says, the specification for each grade should be determined between Buyer and seller, and it is recommended that purchase be made based on a sample.

Additional information on the new specification is available by contacting Joe Pickard, ISRI’s chief economist and director of commodities, at jpickard@isri.org or Bret Biggers, ISRI’s senior economist, at bbiggers@isri.org.