AF&PA Statement on EPA Final Rule on National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Kraft Pulp Mills

Walmart continues to reinvent the retail experience as we move toward a more sustainable future. At the heart of these efforts is something that seems simple: the plastic bag. Our journey to go Beyond the Bag began early last year, when we joined Closed Loop Partners’ Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag, collaborating with CVS Health, Target and other major retailers to lead industry-wide change around viable alternatives to the traditional plastic shopping bag. The good news is we’ve made progress. In fact, we’ve found opportunity for true change at the intersection of new technology and sustainability. As our stores work to test the innovative winning solutions of the Beyond the Bag Innovation Challenge, we’re seeing firsthand that the future isn’t just bright for alternatives — it’s more sustainable, and it’s on the immediate horizon.

An industrial pavilion and a road section, both in the Aveiro region, are the first visible results at real scale of using waste generated in the pulp and paper industry in precast concrete structures and in bituminous mixtures for roads paving in Portugal. The challenge, which is both complex and ambitious, emerged as part of the paperChain European project and is already being put into practice in Ílhavo and Cacia: using waste from pulp production, such as lime ash, dregs and grits (granular waste) as secondary raw materials in the construction sector, integrating them in a circular economy logic. The paperChain project includes 20 partners from five EU countries committed to circularity boosting). In Portugal, the entities involved include the University of Aveiro, The Navigator Company, Spral, Megavia, RAIZ Research Institute and the Sustainable Habitat Cluster. Called "New niche markets for waste from the pulp and paper industry based on the circular economy", it is coordinated by the company Acciona Construction (Spain).

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) conducts the Global Client Survey every two years to assess how our certificate holders and promotional licence holders perceive FSC. The learnings are vital to our continual improvement of the FSC certification system. This year 8,975 Chain of Custody and Forest Management Certificate Holders and 323 Promotional Licence Holders participated in the survey – the highest participation rate in recent years. Our sincere gratitude goes out to all respondents who filled out the survey and contributed to this outcome. The results of the 2022 FSC Global Client Survey show that about half of FM and CoC Certificate Holders surveyed perceive FSC certification as valuable for its role in protecting forest ecosystems and preventing deforestation and forest degradation, while others value improved market access and brand image, among other factors. Nearly 90 per cent of Promotional Licence Holders believe the FSC licence will help build their brand image and sustainability credentials. Most surveyed certificate and licence holders believe the importance of FSC certification will increase in the next two years.