The current RPA-100% trademarked symbol appears on billions of packages every year and consumers have come to rely on it to know that a package has been produced using 100% recovered fiber, RPA-100% notes. The new certification program and accompanying revised trademarked symbol, it adds, provide consumers a new level of assurance that the paperboard used in the packaging of the product they are purchasing has been verified as 100% recovered fiber. Consumer research, RPA-100% points out, has continued to prove that use of recycled content and being able to recycle the package are key environmental considerations of consumers.
Paul Schutes, executive director of the RPA-100% Board, said that "this is an exciting time for the 100% recycled paperboard industry and for the RPA-100%. The existing symbol, which has been in use since 1995, has been an important tool for brand owners to communicate the recycled content of 100% recycled paperboard to consumers. With this new program and the revised symbol, our licensees, some of North America’s largest and most prominent brand owners, will have a level of substantiation for the claim they are making on packaging that has never before been available."
A complete list of certified member mills producing certified 100% recycled paperboard is available on the RPA-100% web site. Consumers can expect to begin seeing the revised symbol (shown at right) appearing on packages in the first quarter of 2014.
More information about the certification program is available online, or by calling 202-347-8000.
TAPPI
http://www.tappi.org/