With this year being the International Year of Forests, during 6 – 9 September 2011 the corrugated industry joined the forest sector in the European Parliament to showcase how European forests are a fundamental part of modern life. Counter to popular belief, today’s forests are doing just fine and are on the increase year on year.

Due to the deforestation of tropical forests by other industries in other continents, the paper-based industry has been accused of reducing and destroying Europe’s great forests too. Clearly we’ve not been very good at getting the facts out there, so over the coming months Corrugated of course! will show you how wood is sourced in a sustainable manner for corrugated products, and how Europe’s beautiful woodland is being managed.

To get started here’s a couple of facts:

European forests are increasing annually by an area equivalent to 1.5 million football pitches (FAO Statistics 2007)
Contrary to popular belief, our forests are growing thanks to the care and knowledge of forest managers, 30% since 1950. A quantity of trees is felled each year for paper-based products. However this is done in a sustainable way by experts who understand the working of a forest and the lifecycle of trees. Over 80% of corrugated packaging is made from recycled fibres with around 18% coming from paper derived from virgin wood.

But 26% of that wood comes from wood residues from other industries. (CEPI)
So a good percentage of wood chips and shavings created by other industries working with wood are used to create paper-based products, rather than only sourcing virgin material from forests.

More on this subject will follow shortly.