A recent study by the Corrugated Packaging Alliance, Elk Grove Village, Ill., shows a 30 percent increase in the use of recyclable alternatives to waxed corrugated in 2010:
- According to the report, in 2010, the corrugated industry shipped 6.4 billion square feet of boxes using recyclable wax alternative coatings. That is more than 30 percent more than the 4.9 billion square feet shipped in 2009 and 385 percent more than when first measured in 2002.
- Progress has been made in replacing all types of wax-treated boxes (cascaded, impregnated and curtain-coated) with recyclable-treated boxes, according to the study.
- Thirty-eight recyclable wax alternatives have passed certification testing and recyclability and have been registered with the Fibre Box Association (FBA) as of July, 2011. Each replaces a wax cascaded, impregnated or surface-coating application and allows the container to be marked with the Corrugated Recycles symbol to indicate its ability to be combined with other old corrugated containers (OCC).
- The certified registrations were completed by seven coating suppliers commercially offering solutions in the marketplace and 10 converting companies offering solutions to their customers.
“The 2010 growth in recyclable wax alternatives is remarkable,” Dwight Schmidt, president of the FBA, says. “Retailers had been asking for them for years, and needed a legitimate certification system in place to assure that products claiming recyclability were, in fact, acceptable in the OCC recycle stream. The advent of FBA’s testing protocol opened up opportunities for improved solutions to make their way into the marketplace. Retailers’ responses have been overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic.”
The Corrugated Packaging Alliance is an initiative jointly sponsored by the American Forest & Paper Association, the Association of Independent Corrugated Converters and the FBA.
More information is available at www.corrugated.org/WaxAlternatives.