Paper Clips

Since 2023, employee-led projects at ten Domtar mills have reduced the company’s water use by more than 2.3 billion gallons a year — enough to fill 3,480 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Twenty-four projects, designed and driven by the people who know the mills best, are helping Domtar’s paper and packaging mills reach the company’s water target: a 20% reduction in water-use intensity by 2030, compared to 2020 levels.  The program works like a competition. Through the Water Reduction Capex Fund, Domtar sets aside a portion of capital spending solely for water-reduction projects, and mill teams submit proposals for a share of it. There’s one unusual rule.  “The projects didn’t need to provide a financial return. The priority was saving water,” says Brian Kozlowski, senior director of environment and sustainability for Domtar’s Paper and Packaging business unit. “That gave our employees the chance to think beyond the bottom line — and they really did.”

Legislation aimed at creating extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs for packaging hit something of a speed bump in 2026. This year, lawmakers failed to pass packaging-focused EPR bills in six states—just one shy of the number of states that have EPR laws for packaging on their books. That ought to come as a relief to printers and converters of labels and packaging, but in many cases it won’t. This is not because the news isn’t positive. It’s because all too often, printers and converters are only vaguely aware of what EPR is and how it could affect their relationships with customers to whom they supply packaging and labels. Groups on both sides of the EPR debate want to raise the industry’s awareness: advocates by passing laws to impose EPR requirements that no one subject to them can afford to ignore; opponents by warning printers and converters of what the intended and unintended consequences of the EPR movement can be.