During its 2010 Fall Conference, the Paper Stock Industries (PSI) Specification Committee had added several new grades and made amendments to a number of existing grades in it material specifications.A final vote on the new specifications will be made this April.
PSI is a national chapter of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI), Washington, D.C.
The changes were in response to requests to add grades for post-consumer aseptic packaging and newspaper from single-stream programs, as well as to adjusting definitions in the preamble, according to Sandy Rosen, chair of PSI's Specifications Committee.
The motions were approved by a vote of the committee members present at the PSI's fall meeting. A final decision on whether the changes become official will be made by ISRI's board at the association's annual convention in April.
The Specifications Committee has added the grade aseptic packaging and gable-top cartons. The grade “consists of liquid packaging board containers including empty, used, polyethylene- (PE-)coated, printed one-side aseptic and gable-top cartons containing no less than 70 percent bleached chemical fiber and may contain up to 6 percent aluminum foil and 24 percent PE film. Prohibitive materials may not exceed 2 percent, and total outthrows may not exceed 5 percent.”
The committee also voted to add a new definition for “Other Acceptable Papers” to the preamble of the domestic and export sections (in conjunction with amendments to old news grades No. 6, No. 7 and No. 8). This material is now defined as "all other papers that are deemed acceptable by the buyer and allowed in that buyer's pack up to the percentage allowed."
The committee also voted to change newspaper grades Nos. 6,7 and 8 as follows:
“Old Newspaper (No. 6) will consist of sorted newspapers and other acceptable papers as typically generated by voluntary collection and curbside collection programs.” Prohibitive materials may not exceed 2 percent, outthrows plus prohibitives may not exceed 4 percent and other acceptable papers may not exceed 30 percent.
“Regular News, De-Ink Quality (No. 7) will consist of sorted, fresh newspapers, not sunburned, and other acceptable papers. The grade may contain magazines.” Prohibitive materials may not exceed 1 percent, outthrows plus prohibitives may not exceed 3 percent, and other acceptable papers may not exceed 20 percent, according to the new definition.
“Special News, De-ink Quality (No. 8) will consist of sorted, fresh newspapers, not sunburned, and other acceptable papers. This grade is to be relatively free from magazines and contain no more than the normal percentage of rotogravure and colored sections.” Prohibitive materials may not exceed 1 percent, outthrows plus prohibitives may not exceed 2 percent and other acceptable papers may not exceed 10 percent , according to the revised specification.