Packaging that gives back
Paper-based packages, containers, sacks and bags are part of our everyday lives, so it can be easy to forget what makes them unique. Unlike other packaging options, paper-based packages are made from trees, a completely renewable source. They are also the most recovered packages for recycling, making them a sustainable, responsible choice throughout their life cycle.
The paper-based packaging industry has joined together to provide businesses and the public with the facts about The Responsible Package. Check out these
helpful resources about paper-based packaging that can help you make a sustainable packaging decision.
The Responsible Package Videos
| Delivering Life… Responsibly
Paper-based packaging is helping deliver life's moments, while being reused and recycled more than any other packaging material. |
Did you know?
- Paper is the most often recycled packaging material in the U.S..
- The paper products industry plants trees to be used specifically for their products.
- More paper (by weight) is recovered for recycling from municipal solid waste streams than glass, plastic, steel and aluminum combined.
- Paper bags are readily compostable, making them an ideal container for compostable waste.
- 91% of corrugated products produced in the U.S. were recovered for recycling in 2011.
- Both coated and uncoated paperboard is produced from 100 percent recovered paper.
- Paper packaging is constantly updated and modernized.
- The paper packaging industry leads efforts to recover its own products for recycling.
- About 49% more wood grows in our nation’s forests than is harvested, documenting wood fiber as a renewable resource.
- The amount of paper packaging that is recovered for recycling continues to increase each year.
- Corrugated packaging supply an important component – carbon – to compost.
- Nearly half of all paper bags produced in the U.S. are recovered for recycling.
- U.S. paper recovery has increased 89 percent since 1990, making it a true environmental success story.
- 87% of Americans have access to curbside and/or drop-off recycling services.
- Paper packaging’s high recovery rates are possible thanks to millions of Americans who recycle at home, work and school every day.
- There are many creative and innovative reuses for paper packaging.
- Nationwide, the U.S. paper and forest products industry employs nearly 900,000 workers.
- R&D programs are continuously improving characteristics of paper-based packaging, such as strength-to-weight ratios.
- Recycled paperboard represents the single largest market for recovered paper in the U.S..
- Each percentage point increase in the U.S. paper recovery rate is equal to the recovery of an additional 800,000 tons of paper — enough to fill more than 10,000 railroad cars.