American Packaging Corporation announces five APC Centers of Excellence achieved International Sustainability and Carbon Certification PLUS. APC's Columbus, Wisconsin, Deforest, Wisconsin, Story City, Iowa, Chili, New York and Rochester, New York plants all achieved the certification, allowing APC to source and convert advanced recycled resins and films, often called circular content. These circular content resins and films are used to manufacture packaging products requiring recycled content and tracks the usage through a mass-balance accounting process, a methodology that looks at all inputs and outputs of a particular process. ISCC PLUS certification plays a crucial role in the development of the circular economy by ensuring the traceability of advanced recycled plastics along the entire supply chain in compliance with the ISCC PLUS standards. Unlike traditional mechanically recycled content, the advanced recycled process converts materials to the molecular level, offering a feedstock that can be used to produce new plastic materials with properties equal to virgin plastic. The result is eco-friendly materials that are highly sought-after by environmentally conscious consumers. This certification provides an additional and complementary option to mechanically recycled materials for those customers wishing to utilize recycled content.

Total containerboard production in June increased nine percent compared to June 2020. It was up five percent when compared to the same six months of 2020. June 2021 production of containerboard for export decreased 15 percent compared to the same month last year; it was down 25 percent year-to-date. The containerboard operating rate was 92.7 percent, up 1.4 points from June 2020 and up 1.4 points year-to-date. Mill inventories of containerboard at the end of June decreased 74,000 short tons from the previous month and were down 76,000 short tons compared to June 2020.

WestRock Company announced it will permanently close the corrugated medium manufacturing operations at its St. Paul, Minnesota, recycled paper mill. The production of coated recycled board at this location will remain in operation. WestRock is committed to improving its return on invested capital as well as maximizing the performance of its assets, and the corrugated medium machinery at the St. Paul location would require significant capital investment to maintain and improve going forward. The shutdown of these assets will result in the reduction of 200,000 tons of annual corrugated medium production. “Shutting down operations and impacting the lives of our employees is a difficult decision to make,” said David B. Sewell, chief executive officer at WestRock. “As we implement our plans to close the corrugated medium operations in St. Paul, we are incredibly appreciative for the many contributions this team has made. We plan to assist these team members in exploring roles at other WestRock locations and with outplacement services.”