Sonoco Implementing Price Increase for Uncoated Recycled Paperboard

Georgia-Pacific has announced plans to invest more than $425 million to build a Dixie facility in Jackson, the largest single investment in the city’s history. Once operational, the plant will employ more than 200 people and produce well-known tableware products, including the Dixie® and Dixie Ultra® lines of plates and bowls. The 900,000-square-foot facility will sit on 241 acres west of the city. Construction is slated to begin by the end of the year and startup is expected in the summer of 2024. The fully air-conditioned workspace will include a printer, associated plate forming converting assets, and other state-of-the-art manufacturing technology. Georgia-Pacific directly employs approximately 460 people and operates six facilities in Tennessee.

Fruit and vegetables are the centerpiece of today’s grocery stores and often the first department that customers experience when walking in the door. Visually appealing produce signals quality and freshness, and for brand owners and retailers, it is critical that fruits and vegetables arrive undamaged. With fruit and vegetable loss already as much as 50% throughout the value chain, strong packaging can play a role at minimizing this by preventing damage to fresh produce. Producers and sellers have high expectations for packaging reliability and at the same time seek to balance this with increasingly ambitious sustainability measures. This includes combating food waste and reducing their packaging’s environmental impact. In the fruits and vegetables category, retailers and brand owners are commonly presented with a choice between recyclable corrugated containerboard packaging and reusable plastic crates. Both offer protection, but how can they know which is the most sustainable choice? To help our customers better understand the options and their potential environmental impacts, we recently conducted a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) comparing corrugated containerboard box to a reusable plastic crate for transporting fresh produce.

Continuing a rapid development journey of sustainable and fiber-based packaging innovations, Ahlstrom passes Western Michigan Recyclability Certification for several food packaging base papers that utilize Ahlstrom’s proprietary FluoroFree® technology. “We are proud that our food packaging products passed Western Michigan University’s testing protocol for recyclability,” says Travis Dahlke, Vice President, Food Packaging Americas. “Achieving this certification offers our customers and the marketplace yet another fiber-based solution to reduce traditional non-renewable materials in packaging engineering and creates a positive end-of-life scenario that consumers are demanding.”