Schutes Named to RPA-100% Post

The 100% Recycled Paperboard Alliance (RPA-100%), Washington, has announced the hiring of packaging industry veteran Paul J. Schutes to serve as executive director of the trade group.

Schutes, who has more than 24 years of packaging industry experience, is expected to provide consumer product companies with support in analyzing the benefits of 100 percent recycled-content paperboard packaging. He will also serve as the primary spokesperson for RPA-100%, whose membership consists of companies representing more than two-thirds of the recycled paperboard industry.

“Caliper for caliper, 100 percent recycled paperboard is functionally equivalent to virgin paperboard, providing similar quality, strength and performance at lower cost,” says Schutes. “Many well-known national brands recognize the business and environmental benefits of using 100 percent recycled paperboard packaging, and I greatly look forward to carrying our value message to more companies in the months ahead.”

Schutes' career includes a twelve-year tenure at Rock-Tenn Co., during which he served as the director of structural design, director of design engineering and finally the senior vice president of sales and marketing for their folding carton group.

As executive director of RPA-100%, Schutes will work in cooperation with the organization's board of directors, led by newly appointed chairman David Dreibelbis, executive vice president and general manager of the Rock-Tenn Co.’s Paperboard Group.

“With consumer product companies increasingly focusing on reducing costs while maintaining quality, and with consumers increasingly asking for environmentally friendly packaging, Paul is the perfect industry executive to lead our organization and expand the use of 100 percent recycled paperboard in the years ahead,” says Dreibelbis.

RPA-100% has begun a marketing campaign to promote the benefits of 100 percent recycled paperboard to key audiences. That campaign is being led by newly-appointed committee chairman Robert Runyan, vice president of marketing for Newark Paperboard Mills.

RPA-100% is a non-profit, independent trade group that serves as an information resource on the benefits of recycled paperboard and provides assurance of the recycled content of consumer packaged goods through its 100 percent recycled paperboard logo licensing program.