Tonawanda, New York-based NOCO’s Buffalo River Compost brand Tend says its 1-cubic-foot bags of Brian’s Best Seal of Testing Assurance-, or STA-, approved compost will be packaged using a lawn and garden bag containing 20 percent postconsumer resin (PCR) for the 2023 season. Buffalo, New York-based Buffalo River Compost launched Tend, a brand geared for direct-to-consumer lawn and garden products, in 2022. When the company began to pursue packaging options, it says it found limited sustainable options. “Some places around the country are starting to require minimum recycled content standards for plastic packaging, such as garbage bags, but due to features such as UV protection and anti-slip, we weren’t able to immediately identify suppliers that used PCR in lawn and garden bags,” says Bobbie Thoman, director of sustainability and innovation at Tend.

Footprint optimization and a structural reorganization are on the table as Graphic Packaging International embarks on a transformational period, said CEO Robbert Rietbroek. Sales during the fourth quarter of 2025 were essentially flat year over year, said executives on Tuesday’s earnings call. It was the first earnings call for Robbert Rietbroek, whose career has spanned stints at PepsiCo and P&G, since being named GPI’s CEO in December and taking over the role Jan. 1. “In several of these roles, I’ve been a customer of Graphic Packaging, and my teams worked closely with the Graphic Packaging team to design winning packaging solutions,” he said. Market trends: One of Rietbroek’s early observations is that “the external environment remains challenged near term,” and that overcapacity in bleached paperboard markets is putting pressure on finished packaging. Plus, consumer demand for staples remains uneven due to affordability issues and macroeconomic uncertainty. “We are not simply waiting for markets to recover. We are focused on what we can control,” he said.

Finnish packaging manufacturers PackageMedia and Starcke have been awarded for their innovative products packaged in Kotkamills’ board material. Designed by PackageMedia, the Fazer Domino campaign packaging has received a ScanStar Award. The primary judging criteria of the pan-Nordic packaging competition, organised by the Scandinavian Packaging Association, were innovativeness of the idea, protective properties of the packaging, price, design, and user and environmental friendliness. The awarded Domino campaign skilfully used appealing images submitted by consumers. To delight consumers, digital technology was used to print a total of 1,200 different images on cookie packages made from Kotkamills’ AEGLE® Pro board. The good printability and excellent stiffness of AEGLE® Pro ensured the high-end result.