If you’ve been in the conversation about sustainable packaging at all in the last few years, you’ve seen the rise in use of recycled content in plastic packaging. But what exactly is post-consumer recycled (PCR) content, and where does it fit into the sustainable packaging landscape? Is it really sustainable? In this Deep Dive we’ll focus on PCR in plastic packaging. Post-consumer recycled content refers to materials that have already been used by consumers, recycled, and then repurposed into new products, including packaging. A piece of packaging is said to have some percentage of PCR – if for example, a plastic bag with 20% PCR was made of 20% recycled content, and the other 80% was virgin (new) content. In the world of sustainable packaging, PCR is most commonly part of the discussion in plastics (you may also hear PCR spelled out as “post-consumer resin” in the context of plastics), but most kinds of packaging can have recycled content – glass, metal, paper, and more. For whatever reason, the term PCW (post-consumer waste) is sometimes used, especially in paper products, but the concept is the same.

Sonoco announced it will increase prices for its paper-based tubes and cores by a minimum of 6 percent in the United States and Canada, effective with shipments beginning July 16, 2018. “The price increase is necessary due to ongoing increases in uncoated recycled paperboard (URB), the largest input cost for tubes and cores. URB demand remains strong and the marketplace is extremely tight, with operating rates pushing 100 percent,” said Doug Schwartz, division vice president of sales and marketing. “In addition, the rising cost of transportation remains a headwind due to lack of capacity linked to recently imposed driver regulations. As a result, Sonoco will be implementing a new policy of selling certain large diameter tubes that have less space utilization yields at F.O.B. from our operations.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is likely to publish a final ruling in January 2023, requiring manufacturers (including importers) to report information on PFAS manufactured or imported since Jan. 1, 2011. If the rule is finalized as proposed, manufacturers will have to report use of any materials with PFAS and stop using new products containing intentionally added PFAS. Anticipating these and future legislative limits regarding PFAS, Pregis implemented processes in its high-performance blown film operations to ensure they eliminated PFAS from incoming materials and do not include within the manufacturing process. Pregis Performance Flexibles customers can be confident that our film solutions have no added PFAS, meeting new legislative standards.