European Database for Cartonboard and Carton Production 2023

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Some converting plants use gravure printing processes for high-volume cartons, but this
is less common. Gravure printing is more energy intensive compared to other printing
processes. Therefore, weighted average datasets were prepared for plants with gravure
printing processes on site and for plants without gravure printing onsite, and these were
then combined to produce the overall weighted average for converting processes. In
preparing this overall weighted average, the following shares were considered for gravure
and non-gravure printing:
• Share of sites with gravure printing – 11.1%
• Share of sites without gravure printing – 88.9%
In the aggregated dataset for carton production, the relative virgin and recycled
cartonboard shares are used to calculate the inputs and outputs for the weighted average
cartonboard. The paper production inputs and outputs are then multiplied with the
average input of paper (1.1689 tonnes of cartonboard per tonne of cartons) and added up
to the inputs and outputs per tonne of carton converting as reported in the Annex. This
total includes the production of the cartonboard that is used to produce the cartons,
including the 14.5% losses that are reported as “paper for recycling”. It has to be kept in
mind that the industry averages for inputs of cartonboard, glue, inks, etc are used.
Cartons are far from standardised and inputs of depend on the specific box design.
Material inputs
Raw materials - fibre
The wood input has been reported as bone dry solid wood under bark. The species are
specified, although in the datasets they are reported only as softwood or hardwood.
>80% of the pulp wood used for the production of cartonboard by the companies
returning the survey was certified and third party verified as being sourced from
sustainable managed forests and delivered through a certified chain-of-custody system
(PEFC or similar). A similar proportion of the purchased pulp is also certified and third
party verified as being sourced from sustainable managed forests. The input of recovered
paper has been reported as total weight including moisture and other materials (sand,
metal objects, plastics, wood etc.). In European countries the water content of recovered
paper is generally assumed to be about 10%. The total input of recovered paper is given.
The content of other materials in the recovered paper is about 8%. These materials are
eliminated from the pulp as rejects during the pulping. It is estimated that about a third
of these rejects are materials that were associated with the previous use of the paper (for
example, staples, paper clips, tags, adhesive labels, unrecovered fibres, etc). The
remaining two thirds is material that is not in any way associated with the previous use
of the paper (for example, foreign items such as textiles, plastic packaging, glass, sand
and grit, etc).
Non-integrated and semi-integrated mills buy mechanical and chemical pulp. The pulp
data are reported in bone dry 4 weight, which is normally 90% of the wet (air dry) weight.
4 Bone dry weight: weight without any water
© RISE Research Institutes of Sweden