European Database for Cartonboard and Carton Production 2023

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the mill per tonne of virgin cartonboard and a 7% reduction in fossil carbon dioxide
emissions arising at the mill per tonne of recycled cartonboard
• Fossil carbon dioxide emissions from fuels consumed at converting operations have been
reduced by 38% in 2021 compared to 2018.
• Total water input per tonne of recycled cartonboard is reduced by 33% from 14.43 m 3 per
tonne to 9.73 m 3 per tonne.
• There has been an improvement in efficiency of board use at the converting plants. In
2021, 1.169 tonnes of cartonboard were required to produce 1 tonne of cartons, compated
to 1.245 tonnes of cartonboard per tonne of cartons required in 2018.
Sustainable forest management
There is currently no life cycle impact assessment methodology for biodiversity impacts
of forest management to produce primary fibres for fibre-based products. Nevertheless,
biodiversity impacts are an essential element of forest industry products. Sustainable
forest management practices have been developed to protect and maintain the ecosystem
services in managed forests and plantations. The voluntary sustainable forest
management certification schemes have been designed to address relevant practices that
help protect ecosystem services such as biodiversity or those that are impacted by land
use and their implementation has been verified through an accredited, independent third
party. These practices set a proxy for mitigating land use impacts and protecting
biodiversity.
The data collection revealed that >80% of the pulp wood used for the production of
corrugated base papers by the companies returning the survey was certified as being
sourced from sustainable managed forests. Predominantly, primary fibres are FSC or
PEFC certified. A similar proportion of the purchased pulp is also certified and third
party verified as being sourced from sustainable managed forests.
Details of the specific countries of origin and species of wood used are not provided in
this report. The data provided by incomplete and when reviewed it was not deemed
representative of the complete situation.
Conclusions
This report presents the gate-to-gate life cycle inventories for the production of
cartonboard, manufactured primarily from primary fibres, the production of
cartonboard manufactured primarily from recovered fibres, the conversion of
cartonboard into blank cartons, (including die cutting, creasing, printing and where
applicable folding/gluing) and an aggregated dataset, which considers the production of
cartonboard and the conversion of this cartonboard into cartons.
The datasets represent the weighted average European situation for each of the processes
according to the market and technology situation in 2021. The datasets are based on
primary data collected directly from the mills and convertors operating the processes.
Participation in the surveys for cartonboard production was high, with a significant
increase in the number of sites participating and the proportion of European production
covered. Participation in the survey for carton converting was also significant, with data
received from twenty-five converting sites. Although this was fewer sites compared to the
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