Recovered fiber users recently reported on the financial impact of material prices over the past quarter. | Siwakorn1933/Shutterstock
One major paper company reported a 179% increase in OCC prices year over year during the third quarter. Although the OCC market has cooled slightly since then, paper companies are projecting similarly elevated prices for the year to come.
Celadon will build its North American headquarters and a recycled brown pulp manufacturing line near Savannah, Ga. | FellowNeko/Shutterstock
A $155 million facility to recycle OCC and mixed paper is coming to the Savannah, Ga. area, the governor’s office announced.
U.S. fiber exports totaled 4.38 million short tons during the third quarter, up from 4.30 million in 2020. | Avigator Fortuner/Shutterstock
The third quarter of the year brought a resilient recovered fiber export market, even as the largest overseas buyer virtually disappeared. Meanwhile, scrap plastic exports continued a precipitous decline.
Pratt Industries’ facility in Albany, Ga. | Courtesy of Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission
Two major producers of containerboard made from recycled fiber are growing their presence in the U.S. Pratt Industries will add on to a Georgia box plant, and Atlantic Packaging is working on a major facility in Illinois.
The strong global containerboard demand suggests the U.S. recovered fiber market will continue to export OCC. | ja images / Shutterstock
Paper mills that use a lot of recovered fiber were forced to pay substantially more for OCC over the past few months, reflecting the global strength in corrugated packaging demand.
Recovered fiber exports jumped from 7.4 million short tons in the first half of 2020 to 9.0 million short tons this year. | Sreytoch Lann / Shutterstock
Recovered fiber exports increased significantly during the first six months of 2021 compared with the same period last year, with a spike in material moving to India and Thailand. Plastic exports were steady year over year.
Pratt has announced plans for a 450,000-square-foot paper mill and a 700,000-square-foot adjacent corrugating plant. | Mark Agnor / Shutterstock
Pratt Industries and Kentucky state officials on July 29 announced the company will build its sixth 100% recycled paper mill in the U.S. The project will break ground next year and is slated to start up in fall 2023.
Traditional coatings on coffee cups add contamination to the recycling process, but Smart Planet Technologies has developed a solution. | Andy Shell / Shutterstock
Leaders at Smart Planet Technologies, which produces a coating that minimizes contamination during the fiber milling process, say they have seen adoption in several global regions. But several factors have limited U.S. growth.
Worldwide, nearly 269 million short tons of recovered fiber were generated in 2019. | nickpeps / Shutterstock
A global report charting recovered fiber trends throughout 2019 found that packaging made up 86% of the end products made from the material. The study also examined fiber generation by region, international trade flows and more.