The Caraustar® Commitment to Sustainability

Caraustar has 70 years of commitment to recycling and the manufacture of 100% recycled paperboard products. Caraustar recovers 2.4 million tons of paper fiber each year. In the past 5 years Caraustar Mills have:

• Reduced carbon emissions by 21.9%
• Reduced energy per ton by 14.6%
• Reduced water per ton by 18.9%

Caraustar’s Recovered Fiber Group developed a program to collect and recycle used, damaged, obsolete and over-issued books for conversion into recycled paper products. We collected 18,000 tons of books in 2008.

Caraustar uses Lean manufacturing practices and Kaizen events to improve efficiencies and reduce plant waste. In one plant, an event yielded a 43% reduction in make-ready time and, in another plant, we reduced waste by 30% on a line.

Caraustar uses vegetable and soy inks for the majority of our offset and flexographic printing, reducing the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released into the environment. We have installed inking systems on our presses that control the consumption of ink and reduce the amount of ink waste by 20%.

Caraustar packaging engineers analyze customer’s structures and substrates to provide sustainable packaging alternatives, while meeting or exceeding specifications. Our packaging engineers re-designed one structure for a customer, which reduced the paperboard consumed by 45%, and reduced greenhouse gases by over 40%.

Introduction of a 4th paperboard grade, ES paperboard (Environmentally Smart) made entirely of recovered fiber, with a minimum of 50% post consumer waste.