The old corrugated containers (OCC) grade has become the dominant scrap paper grade generated, processed and sold in the United States, as pointed out by Myles Cohen of Pratt Recycling Inc., Conyers, Georgia.
Cohen, who moderated a session titled “Re-Defining the PSI Definition and Specification of OCC” at the 2014 Paper & Plastics Recycling Conference, noted that 66 percent of the 49.3 million tons of recovered fiber collected in the U.S. in 2013 consisted of OCC.
Yet, added Cohen, the PSI (Paper Stock Industries) specification for No. 11 OCC is exceedingly brief and decades old. “We have 15 words for this huge percentage of what we sell,” said Cohen. He added that “we’ve had this specification for more than 25 years” and that “it’s time to get clarity and formality” introduced to the grade.
Cohen and three other presenters gave their views of what the PSI chapter of ISRI (Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc.) may wish to consider as its Specifications Committee prepares to update the definition.
Two of the largest domestic consumers of the grade were represented on the panel, with Johnny Newsome of Sonoco, Hartsville, South Carolina, and Linda Leone of RockTenn, based in Norcross, Georgia, providing an overview of the different versions of the grade used internally by their companies.
Sonoco has an A grade of OCC that almost always derives from traditional paperstock plants. Meanwhile, OCC from material recovery facilities (MRFs) that handle residential stream tonnage generally are assigned B and C grades.
Leone said RockTenn containerboard mills have specific pulping formulas that they follow involving inputs of the A, B, C grades and a G grade from material derived from grocers and other retailers.
Kari Talvola of paper recycling firm Fibre Trade Inc., Burlingame, California, commented that the specification for No. 11 OCC “is too vague” and that “it’s beneficial for our purposes to change with the changing world.”
Talvola also remarked that each paper mill and even each transaction contains variables and that ISRI and PSI specifications always note that each trade is “subject to agreement between the buyer and seller.”
More conversation about the No. 11 OCC specification has been scheduled for the PSI Specifications Summit 2015, taking place Feb. 25-26 in Dallas.