You might not know it, but when you go to the grocery store you’re probably buying plenty of products in recycled content packaging.
One of the key recycled paper items at the grocery store is paperboard. It also goes by the name “boxboard” or “chipboard.” You’ll see paperboard boxes for cereal, baking products, pasta, crackers, cookies, snacks, and other products.
Manufacturers of recycled paperboard use a lot of paper that you recycle. The Rock-Tenn paperboard mill in St. Paul uses 350,000 tons of recycled paper every year! When a company uses recycled paperboard packaging, it creates a market for all that paper recycled from homes and businesses. Here’s the problem: When a company uses virgin fiber rather than recycled content, then our buying habits help to cut down more trees and making it more difficult to sustain paper recycling.
In order to make it easier to spot recycled paperboard, the paper industry developed a standard of 100% Recycled Paperboard. The 100% Recycled Paperboard Alliance (RPA) licenses a logo for use by manufacturers. Recycled paperboard is often gray or brown on the inside of the box.
How Can You Make a Difference?
We aren’t necessarily trying to get you to change your brands. But we want you to let your brands know that recycling and recycled content are important to you. Manufacturers like to hear comments from their customers, and they want their customers to be happy! Ideally, manufacturers that are not using recycled content will switch to recycled paperboard due to customer feedback. We’re just trying to speed up the comment process.
In the product categories below, find your favorite brands. Then click on the link to the manufacturer’s web site that takes you to their customer feedback section. If they use recycled paperboard, please take the opportunity to say, “Thanks!” If they don’t use recycled paperboard, let them know that recycled content is important to you.
Disclaimer: This web page is not a project of the 100% Paperboard Alliance, its member companies, or the consumer brands listed. The Recycling Association of Minnesota is solely responsible for the content of the web page.
You can find out details about other recycled products and packaging on our web page called “How to Find Recycled Products at the Grocery Store.” |
