Czech forest certification system submitted for endorsement

Imagine walking out of work for some fresh air and seeing a couple of bees flying around and then looking up to see a massive hive containing thousands of them. That's exactly what happened to an employee at our Green Bay Broadway mill. After it was reported, the first call was made to pest control to get rid of it. Once pest control identified the species of the bees, it was determined that it would be extremely valuable to the environment to relocate them vs. exterminating them. It turns out that the hive contained over 14,000 bees! Rescuing a swarm can be a difficult process but thankfully the Brown County Beekeepers Association was able to come rescue the swarm. Swarms can be captured in a variety of ways. In this case, the honeybees were removed by using a shop vac and a carrier. Yes, you read that right, the honeybees were vacuumed straight into the carrier that they needed to be transported in—surprisingly, it's a very safe process for the bees.

DS Smith recycles around a quarter of the UK’s paper every year. Here, Peter Clayson, General Manager for Business Development and External Affairs at DS Smith Recycling, looks at what the UK needs to do to achieve the recycling targets outlined in the Circular Economy Package. The EU Council has now formally adopted the Circular Economy Package, which incorporates binding recycling targets of 55% municipal waste recycling by 2025, rising to 60% by 2030, and 65% by 2035. The ambition is similar for the recycling of all packaging materials, with targets of 65% by 2025 and 70% by 2030. Targets for paper and card specifically rise to 85% in the same time frame. But when these aspirations are compared with reality, there’s a real concern that the UK is going to fall short. With a current municipal recycling rate of 45.2%, the country is well below the place it needs to be in order to increase its recycling by 10% within the next eight years. Click Read More below for additional information.

In the decade since it started formally measuring its sustainability impact, Smurfit Kappa reached full Chain of Custody certification for its entire raw material supply chain. At the same time it has cut CO₂ emissions by 23% and the quality of its discharge water improved by 32%, both on track for its 2020 target of 25% and 33% respectively. Smurfit Kappa’s sustainability report, which measures year-on-year progress with a focus on five priority areas (Forest, Climate Change, Water, Waste and People), shows that over the past ten years the packaging giant has also achieved a significant reduction in the amount of waste sent to landfill and has invested €60 million in water treatment plants. click Read More below for additional detail