Smurfit Kappa joins Two Sides sustainability group

When it comes to transporting goods across the world, no other mode of transport is as effective or as economical as maritime transport. Data from the International Chamber of Shipping indicates that nearly 11 billion tonnes of cargo are transported by ship each year, making it indispensable to our daily lives. At the same time, the maritime sector also emits about 940 million tonnes of CO2 annually and is responsible for about 2.5 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The sector is scrambling to rapidly reduce emissions by investing in digital technologies, energy-efficient vessels and clean fuels. UPM is dependent on shipping too to get its products to its customers across the world, and oftentimes, the company helps transport other non-UPM cargo as well. As the arm responsible for UPM’s global sea transportation and port operations, UPM Logistics has been time chartering nine vessels in Europe to carry out the company’s cargo shipping needs.

The Italian Forest Certification System has been submitted to PEFC for assessment. The public consultation, which is your chance to give your feedback on this revised system, will run from 26 June to 24 August 2023. PEFC Italy revised the country’s national forest certification system following the entry into force of the revised 2018 PEFC Sustainable Forest Management standard.

Georgia-Pacific announced today that it is now accepting mixed paper bales that contain single-use polyethylene (PE)-coated paper cups at its recycled paper mills in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Muskogee, Oklahoma. The development follows two years of partnership with the Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI) and collaboration with the NextGen Consortium, a global initiative led by Closed Loop Partners with founding partners Starbucks and McDonald’s, to help open opportunities for paper cup recycling. PE coatings, along with any remaining liquid and food left behind from use, have historically left single-use paper cups out of the recovery and recycling process. GP, though, has proven through its extensive re-pulping trials that the Green Bay and Muskogee mills can effectively recapture valuable cup fiber from paper cups while screening out PE-coatings and reuse the fiber to make toilet tissue, napkins and paper towels. “As single-use paper cups have grown in popularity in recent years so, too, has paper cup waste. As a leading manufacturer of paper foodservice products, we continually look for ways to consume fewer resources as part of our longer-term strategy to identify solutions that benefit society. Accepting mixed paper bales containing PE-coated cups at our Green Bay and Muskogee mills is a significant step in this direction,” said John Mulcahy, vice president of sustainability for Georgia-Pacific, which manufactures the Dixie® brand of paper cups.