New Jersey bans plastic and paper bags in one of nation’s most stringent laws (chainstoreage.com)

Finland was one of the first countries to achieve endorsement of its national forest certification system back in 2000, and today most of Finland’s forests are PEFC-certified. Recognizing the scale of Finnish forest sector, Ben and Fabienne Sinclair, responsible for marketing, travelled out to meet with the country’s numerous stakeholders. “This visit was an excellent opportunity for us to get an update, and I am very pleased with the strong progress that PEFC is making,” said Antti Sahi, Secretary General of MTK, which represents farmers, forest owners and rural entrepreneurs in Finland.

Amcor Chief Executive Officer Ron Delia signed the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment on behalf of the company’s 33,000 people. The commitment, which is sponsored by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme, was announced today at the Our Ocean Conference in Bali, Indonesia. Amcor is a core partner of the EMF’s New Plastics Economy initiative. “Plastic packaging is vital for products used by billions of consumers around the globe,” said Amcor’s Mr. Delia. “It’s highly effective and easy to adapt, so that those products are safe, nutritious and effective. “We’re constantly innovating to make plastic packaging even better, including in protecting the environment.” For example, last month Amcor announced a breakthrough, flexible-plastic film that provides high-barrier protection, can be used in sterilized packaging and is recyclable. Click read more below for additional detail.

This week, the supermarket chain Morrisons has launched a “paper bag only” trail in eight stores. If successful, the chain will consider removing plastic bags from all stores and will offer paper bags only. Morrisons started to give their customers the choice between paper and plastic bags earlier this year when they introduced reusable paper bags into their stores at a 20p charge (the same price as a plastic “bag for life”). However, since they have seen little evidence to suggest that the plastic bags are being re-used and therefore, continue to have a negative impact on the environment, they are considering ditching them altogether. Andy Atkinson, Group Customer and Marketing Director, at Morrisons said: “We are taking another meaningful step that will remove an estimated 1,300 tonnes of plastic out of the environment each year. Our customers have told us that reducing plastic is their number one environmental concern so introducing the paper bag across the nation will provide another way of reducing the plastic in their lives.”