Resources

RPTA provides its members with a vast array of resources from educational programs and whitepapers to training modules.

Publications

RPTA has produced a variety of bulletins and manuals covering a broad range of topics from boilouts to metal in board. These publications are used for educating customers and/or for teaching aids for new hires or those new to the industry.

We have also developed Computer Based Training Modules covering the different aspects of papermaking from stock preparation to coating. These serve as great training aids for new hires or those new to the industry.

Seminars

RPTA holds various seminars and roundtable discussions designed to keep membership informed of new or improved operating practices, new technology or products from vendors or to address problem solving issues common to most members like safety, threading practices, furnish, stock cleaning, etc.

Task Forces

RPTA sets up and facilitates meetings where focused groups by discipline meet regularly to discuss new or developmental products, processes, or technology and to discuss issues common to the membership. One currently in operation is the Product Stewardship and Environmental Task Force.

Comprehensive Program for Food Contact Paperboard

Under the authority of the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations allow the use of pulp from reclaimed fiber in food packaging. These regulations recognize that the sources of reclaimed fiber may be either "industrial waste from the manufacture of paper and paperboard" or "salvage from used paper and paperboard..." In both cases, the regulations stipulate that the material may not bear or contain "any poisonous or deleterious substance... that migrates to the food except as provided in the regulations..."

In 1999, the Recycled Paperboard Technical Association (RPTA) and the American Forest & Paper Association jointly published "A Guidance for Industry on The Use of Pulp from Reclaimed Fiber as a Component of Paper and Paperboard Products for Food Packaging under 21 C.F.R. 176.260." The Guidance identified steps appropriate to ensure compliance with FDA requirements. To complement the Guidance, RPTA issued the first edition of its Chemical Testing Protocol for Food Contact Paperboard Made from Recycled Fiber (RPTA Protocol) as a tool to help manufacturers of recycled paper and paperboard identify substances in recycled paperboard and determine the regulatory status of those substances.

Since then, the RPTA Protocol has evolved into the Comprehensive Program for Food-Contact Paperboard Produced From Recycled Fiber to ensure that recycled paperboard can be the first choice for food packaging. Because of this Comprehensive Program, consumers can have full confidence that the food contained within this packaging is safe to consume.

Recycled Paperboard
Technical Association

P.O. Box 2610
Alpharetta, Georgia 30023

Phone: (352) 809-0240
E-mail: rpta@rpta.org

© 2025 RPTA