Paper-Based Alcohol Bottles… Cheers To Paper!

Metsä Board, part of Metsä Group, announced in May 2022 that it will explore possibilities to increase folding boxboard capacity in Finland or Sweden in order to support its customers’ growth and to strengthen its service capability. As result of the study, the company will start pre-engineering for a new folding boxboard mill with an annual capacity of approximately 800,000 tonnes at the Kaskinen mill site in Finland. The pre-engineering phase will include technical design, design of infrastructure and logistics solutions and tendering for the main equipment. As part of the pre-engineering, an environmental impact assessment and an environmental permit process will be launched. The company estimates that a possible investment decision could be made in 2024 at the earliest. The pre-engineering for the new folding boxboard mill is based on fossil-free production and world-class resource and production efficiency. Thanks to the best available technology, the consumption of raw materials, energy and water per tonne of folding boxboard produced would be significantly lower when compared with the existing mills. The product concept would benefit from Metsä Board's long-term development work in the production of premium lightweight paperboards.

Total containerboard production in August remained essentially flat (+0.4 percent) compared to August 2019. It was up four percent when compared to the same eight months of 2019. August 2020 production of containerboard for export decreased nine percent compared to the same month last year; it was up 23 percent year-to-date. The containerboard operating rate was 92.1 percent, essentially flat (-0.4 pts.) from August 2019 and up 2.7 points year-to-date. Mill inventories of containerboard at the end of August increased 35,000 short tons from the previous month and were up 68,000 short tons compared to August 2019.

Mondi has commissioned and completed a life cycle assessment (LCA) for its ground-breaking paper-based Hug&Hold solution, to determine its environmental impact compared to that of conventional low-density polyethylene shrink wrap for six 1.5 litre PET beverage bottles. Hug&Hold is an innovative, sustainable and fully recyclable solution to replace plastic shrink wrap on the PET bottle bundle packs. It comprises two elements - a kraft paper sleeve to provide secure and safe transportation and a corrugated carrying handle that firmly holds the bottles around the neck, featuring an integrated handle for convenience and strength. The assessment shows that Hug&Hold has lower impacts in the categories of climate change, fossil resource use, photochemical ozone formation, acidification, ionising radiation, water use and eutrophication of freshwater. The overall carbon footprint is 43% lower than average LDPE virgin plastic shrink wrap and 15% lower than LDPE shrink wrap with 100% recycled content, meaning it can be recommended to reduce the climate change impacts of packaging while providing a strong solution for the customer and end user.