Cardboard recycling group launches certification program

The 100% Recycled Paperboard Alliance (RPA), Washington, D.C. has launched a certification program called RPA-100% designed to prove that claims made by companies saying they manufacture 100-percent-recycled paperboard are accurate.

The RPA calls the certification system the first of its type available in the marketplace. The group says RPA member companies who produce 100-percent-recycled paperboard were audited by third-party organizations to ensure that they make “certified 100-percent-recycled paperboard.”

Paul Schutes, executive director of RPA board, says, “This is an exciting time for the 100-percent-recycled paperboard industry and for the RPA-100%. The existing symbol, which has been in use since 1995, has been an important tool for brand owners to communicate the recycled content of 100-percent-recycled paperboard to consumers. With this new program and the revised symbol, our licensees, some of North America’s largest and most prominent brand owners will have a level of substantiation for the claim they are making on packaging that has never before been available.”

RPA-100% members include Cascades Boxboard Group, Fusion Paperboard, Graphic Packaging International, RockTenn and White Pigeon Paper Co.