ePac Flexible Packaging, the industry leader in fast time to market, short and medium run length pouches and rollstock, today announced plans to open its next facility in Kansas City, Missouri. Serving brands of all sizes, ePac Kansas City will be a full-service sales and manufacturing facility, located on 9705 Loiret Blvd., Lenexa, KS 66219. The company has begun accepting orders, with fulfillment handled by other ePac U.S. locations until its manufacturing facility opens early 2022. Randy Mackey, General Manager of ePac Kansas City, commented: “We’re excited to be able to bring ePac’s unique service model to local brands that need professional packaging to grow. As with the thousands of ePac clients around the world, our customers will benefit from delivery times of 5-15 business days and low minimum order quantities.”

We are all eager to do better – to make better choices. But we need options. At Stora Enso we have great news for everyone seeking to end their fossil dependency. Papira® by Stora Enso is a revolutionizing wood-based foam, designed to reduce plastics and waste in future packaging solutions. While there has been an ongoing global conversation about the need for a sustainable alternative, a tangible solution has been evolving behind closed doors at the Pilot plant in Fors Mill in Avesta, Sweden. This is where Stora Enso is testing and verifying fully recyclable wood foam in pilot volumes, designed to phase out plastic foams across multiple industries. Meaning your electronic equipment, medicine, beauty products, and kitchen appliances in a very near future can be sustainably safeguarded during transport, storage, and handling. The material is lightweight with excellent shock absorbing properties – with the undeniable sustainable benefit of being plastic-free, fully recyclable, biodegradable and compostable.

Total packaging papers & specialty packaging shipments in February decreased 8% compared to February 2024. They were down 2% when compared to the same 2 months of 2024. The operating rate for unbleached packaging papers was 84.8%, down 3.2 points from February 2024 and up 0.6 points year-to-date. Shipments of the biggest subgrade in bleached packaging papers – food wrapping – were 22,500 short tons for the month of February, down 5.3% from the same month last year.