The Circularity of Paper: Recycling Closes the Circle (twosidesna.org)

Advocating for free and fair recovered fiber trade policies with China, American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) President and CEO Donna Harman announced the association’s filing of formal comments with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Chinese authorities: “We believe China has violated their obligations under the WTO and will disrupt international trade and the global market for recovered fiber by their import limiting actions. Specifically, China has mischaracterized certain valuable raw material as ‘solid wastes,’ has taken action not proportional to its own regulation, is favoring its domestic industry over imports and has not provided enough time for U.S. operators to respond. We urge Chinese authorities to immediately engage with the U.S., other WTO member states and appropriate recovered fiber operators and address a number of concerns in order to ensure a free and fair global recycling system.”

Sustainably grown renewable wood fibre is Finland’s most significant natural resource. Wood-based biomaterials are already being used to manufacture competitive, environmentally friendly products, and their use will increase in the future. To introduce these possibilities, Metsä Group presents the world’s first biodegradable film production – Intelligent Fibre. With its rich forest resources, Finland is the world's No. 1 country in bioeconomy. Metsä Group is a Finnish forest industry company leading the way – we base our business on the resource-efficient use of renewable natural resources and recyclable materials. The current welfare society is a product of the fossil economy, but we see that the unsustainable consumption can no longer continue. The core idea behind bio and circular economy is that every part of a tree and all fractions are used for purposes that create the highest added value. The Intelligent Fibre campaign reveals the future use of wood: all featured objects – the shoe, the headphones and the scale model of the bioproduct mill – are made of biodegradable materials. Click read more below for additional detail.

Amcor Rigid Packaging´s (ARP) Cali plant in Colombia is now powered by renewable solar energy. The solar energy is supplied to Amcor exclusively from Celsia, a new solar plant comprised of more than 16,000 solar panels generating nearly nine million watts of electricity. Incorporating solar power means the Cali Colombia plant is fully powered by renewable energy – a blend of solar and hydroelectric power. Adding solar power will reduce the plant's conventional electric energy consumption by 20%. The remaining 80% of energy used to fuel the plant is provided by renewable hydroelectric energy, also certified by Celsia. In addition, the transition between solar and hydroelectric energy will reduce total emission of 7,388 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year.