Recovered paper prices show signs of rebound

After a downward trend in the second half of 2025, prices for old corrugated containers (OCC) and other recovered paper grades appear to be enjoying upward momentum in the United States.

In the first week of this month, pricing and news service Fastmarkets RISI reported $1 to $5 per ton price increases for OCC in parts of the U.S., calling it part of a “second straight month” of rising prices.

The company, which surveys recovered paper buyers and sellers, says supply factors have included a “seasonally slowed generation month” in February and challenges with transportation tied to winter weather that have restricted materials collection and movement in some regions.

In late January, Recycling Today reported recovered paper price stability and rebounding that had produced “sighs of relief” among collectors and shippers of OCC and other grades.

An early March note to customers from finance firm Stifel, which analyzes publicly traded companies in the waste and recycling sector, says in part, “OCC prices look to have bottomed in November, and prices are up $5 a ton since then.”

Stifel indicates guidance from both Houston-based WM Inc. and Vermont-based Casella Waste Systems “incorporates some expectation of improvement in OCC” pricing.

OCC price increases also appear to have contributed to an early March announcement by South Carolina-based recycled-content paperboard producer Sonoco Products Co. regarding its finished paperboard prices.

That firm says it is implementing a $70 per ton price increase “for all grades of uncoated recycled paperboard (URB) in the United States and Canada, effective with shipments beginning April 3, 2026.”

The price change is necessitated by tightening market conditions, increased mill utilization rates and inflationary input costs,” says Taylor Lane, vice president and general manager of Sonoco’s Industrial Paper Packaging North America business unit.

The paperboard producer says it also will increase prices for all converted paperboard products by 8 percent, effective in mid-April, including paperboard tubes, cores, cones, partitions, protective packaging and other specialty products.

Sonoco recorded annual sales of $7.5 billion in 2025 and has approximately 22,000 employees working in 265 operations in 37 countries.