PEFC and the Thailand Forestry Certification Council (TFCC), our national member for Thailand, have launched a group certification project to support smallholders producing rubber in Thailand. Presented in the Trang province in Thailand in March, the project supports the Klongprang Cooperative in implementing group certification for 1000 hectares of forest, managed by small-scale rubber growers. A wide range of stakeholders from the industry is participating in this effort, providing not only technical and financial support but also market information and demand for the certified products. The pilot project will build a group model and supporting mechanisms to enable more smallholders to achieve TFCC/PEFC certification in the upcoming years.

Domtar's Kingsport Mill has been awarded The Fred Schmitt Award for Outstanding Corporate Leadership by the National Recycling Coalition (NRC). The prestigious national honor recognizes a company showing leadership, innovation and success as a model in recycling and diversion. The Kingsport Mill was nominated by the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce and selected by the NRC for its transformative conversion into Tennessee's largest recycled manufacturer. The mill is home to the second-largest recycled containerboard machine in North America. "This recognition from the National Recycling Coalition is a tremendous honor and a testament to our employees' dedication to sustainability," said Tony Clary, interim mill manager. "Through innovation and hard work, our team has redefined what's possible in circular manufacturing — not just for Domtar, but for our entire industry."

For decades now, billions of dollars in recycling infrastructure investment by the paper industry combined with support from consumers, communities and businesses have made the recycling of paper-based packaging an overwhelming success across North America. Even so, the great success story of recycled packaging has been muddled by competing claims between and among paper manufacturers and the environmental community about how much recycled content packaging products should contain. Unfortunately, consumers, brands and retailers have been badly served by the black-or-white nature of this debate. There’s no question that recycled content contributes to the sustainability of paper-based packaging and to a more sustainable, circular economy. But does every product have to contain 100% recycled content to be sufficiently sustainable, as some insist? The answer is no. To begin with, recycled fiber has to originate somewhere, and that origin is the virgin fiber that made up the paper product that got recycled in the first place. click read more below for additional information