“A year ago, it never would occur to me that we would be having a conversation about the challenges of PET recycling,” Keefe Harrison, CEO of The Recycling Partnership, said in the webinar “PET Packaging: Solving for an Out-of-Sync System” on Thursday, February 12. She said that because polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the highest recycled packaging plastic, with more than 2 billion pounds of PET bottles collected for recycling annually in the US, according to The National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR). And recycled PET is also in demand for use in new packages. But now imports are flooding the market, US PET reclamation facilities are shutting down, and domestic sourcing is in jeopardy. My take on this … PET has been the poster child here in America for plastic packaging recycling and it’s in trouble. This does not bode well for the successful recycling of any packaging plastics in America. And if we don’t recycle, the waste crisis and climate shifts will worsen.

Novolex® announced today that is has completed its combination with Pactiv Evergreen™ Inc., creating a leader in food, beverage and specialty packaging products. The transaction is valued at approximately $6.7 billion, inclusive of Pactiv Evergreen's net debt as of September 30, 2024. "Today is an exciting chapter in the Novolex growth story as we officially welcome Pactiv Evergreen to our company and leverage our combined talents and capabilities to better meet our customers' evolving needs," said Stan Bikulege, Chairman and CEO of Novolex. "Together, we'll continue to solidify our position and deliver in the markets we serve by optimizing operations, accelerating product innovation and driving commercial excellence while maintaining sustainable growth across the business. I look forward to working with our new, expanded Novolex family to achieve our shared mission of packaging a better future through choice, innovation and sustainability. Together, we will work to not only be a leading packaging company, but also to become a leading industrial company in all aspects of our business. I am truly honored to be a part of our combined team." Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., the combined company will continue to operate under the Novolex name as one of the largest food packaging leaders with a broad manufacturing and distribution footprint across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Europe. The combination delivers greater choice to customers with more than 250 brands and 39,000 combined SKUs with one of the most diverse substrate sets in the packaging industry.

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) released the November 2024 Packaging Papers Monthly report.  Total packaging papers & specialty packaging shipments in November increased 9% compared to November 2023. They were up 11% when compared to the same eleven months of 2023. The operating rate for bleached packaging papers was 75.9%, up 4.8 points from November 2023 and up 6.7 points year-to-date. Shipments of the biggest subgrade in unbleached packaging papers – bag & sack – were 97.2 thousand short tons for the month of November, up 2.6% from the same month last year and up 16.6% year-to-date.