Beverage carton material sourcing getting greener, say big 3
Tetra Pak, Elopak and SIG Combibloc said almost two thirds of their converting plants are now certified under the chain of custody (CoC) programme overseen by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) – a benchmarking organisation for the sustainable production of wood and wood products.
“This is double the number of plants certified in 2010, with 33 of the 52 plants now holding certificates,” said the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE).
It added that 2.02m tonnes or 78% of the fibres purchased by the three companies are now FSC certified or FSC controlled wood.
Industry commitment
The industry body said the data came from a report by ProForest – an independent group that scrutinises resource management.
The study was ProForest’s fourth annual assessment on the three packaging giant’s CoC commitment made in 2007.
Tetra Pak, Elopak and SIG Combibloc have committed to reach 100% CoC certification of all wood fibre used in mills producing paperboard for their cartons by 2015. Secondly they’ve committed to secure CIC for all their manufacturing plants by 2018.
“We are very pleased with our progress towards meeting our commitments”, said Katarina Molin, new director-general of ACE. “An increase from 16 to 33 FSC CoC certified plants is an impressive step forward and demonstrates again the commitment of the industry for a full traceability of our raw material, and its strong support for the new EU timber regulation.”
