The Recycled Paperboard Technical Association is a non-profit association that brings together the expertise of paper mills worldwide that manufacture products from at least 90 percent recovered fiber. RPTA is dedicated to the improvement of the recycled paperboard industry.

RPTA member companies have been recycling recovered paper since the turn of the 20th century. This heritage of responsible resource management has forged a tradition of innovation and ingenuity that is unmatched in the paper-making industry.

Serving the needs of companies engaged in producing recycled paperboard since 1953, RPTA is dedicated to the improvement of the industry through product stewardship, benchmarking, materials investigations, and education.

Read about RPTA's long-standing commitment to the use of recovered fiber and recycling here.

Sustainability News

The U.S. paper recovery rate for recycling is 66% for paper and paper-based packaging. And, it's 89% for cardboard boxes! Separate the myths from the facts.
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As the call for the circularity of product lifecycles is growing louder, paper has always had a head start. The industry's strong support and investment in recycling have transformed the circularity of paper products from vision to reality.
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According to the most recent government data, #paper and paper packaging are recycled more than any other material in the U.S. solid waste stream, including plastics (8.7%), glass (25%), and metals (34.1%). Learn more!
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"Paper Packaging – The Natural Choice" is an excellent resource for facts about the sustainability of paper-based packaging from trusted third-party sources. Download now! Members, you can also customize and share.
Download your booklet today!

The recycling industry's paper recycling segment collects, sorts, and processes the recovered fiber into specification grade products. These products are sold and transported to paper mills for production into new paper products.
Learn more #PaperFacts in our Paper Recovery and Recycling Fact Sheet.
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Environmental labels let consumers know that packaging has certain attributes such as recyclability or compostability, or that it meets certain environmental standards. See the results of the importance of these labels in our study on 2020 U.S. packaging preferences.
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Paper and cardboard packaging rank highest with consumers for many sustainability attributes including home #compostability (69%), better for the #environment (66%) and easier to #recycle (51%).
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Sustainability News Courtesy of Two Sides North America


LATEST NEWS

2023 Industry Profile Study
The 2023 Industry Profile Study has been published and distributed to members. The study included 209 grade samples off 65 paper machines at 47 RPTA-member mills. Members can access this report, and prior year reports, at this member-only page. Each member company also received custom, confidential Excel workbooks by email with the samples from their paper machines identified.

Narrow Roll Safety Guideline
Narrow rolls, also known as ribbon rolls, represent a heightened risk of injury due to their unstable configuration. A task team of RPTA members developed a guideline that provides options that mills may consider to protect employees who handle narrow rolls, or will be in the vicinity of narrow rolls. The Guideline is available at this web page.

Summer 2023 Webinar
On July 20th we held a webinar on Treatment Technologies for Wastewater Reuse, presented by Everett Gill and Kristen Jenkins of Brown and Caldwell Engineering. The webinar covered technologies that can reduce the concentration of one or more chemicals in process water or mill effluent. Presentation slides and recordings from the webinar are available to RPTA members only at this web page.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

2023 RPTA Fall Roundtable
NEW PAPER MILL TECHNOLOGY
The annual member-only event will be held October 18 and 19 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. This year’s Roundtable will include:

  1. Seminar by Voith and Valmet
  2. Group Dinner
  3. Tour of Graphic Packaging Mill Tour

Use this link to register.
And this link for detailed information on the Roundtable, including travel information.