The recycled content of liner board continues to increase, and the fact that U.S. OCC (Old Corrugated Container) has a 91% recovery rate is a great story for the environment. Although technology continues to find ways to use these highly recycled fibers to produce liner, the simple reality is that paper fibers are not infinitely recyclable. The more we recycle paper the shorter the fiber lengths become and these short fiber materials are dramatically impacting the performance characteristics of finished packaging. The amount of Recycled Content Paper (RCP) is growing.
Virgin fiber provides great crush and puncture resistance at low strength/basis weights, however the amount of virgin paper being produced in North America is not going to change any time soon, if ever. The regulatory environment effectively prohibits to construction of new virgin paper mills here in the US and at this time there are no plans to build virgin fiber mills anywhere in the world. There are rumors that Russia is evaluating the possibility, but for the foreseeable future the virgin content of packaging will be static while the worldwide demand for packaging increases. So RCP will be an increasing part of the mix for a long time to come.
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