Our Environmental Statement.

Oji Foodservice Packaging Solutions recovers for recycling approximately 400 tons of paper residues from cup manufacturing processes per year.

Oji Foodservice Packaging Solutions and the Environment

The paperboard we use for our cups is manufactured from 100% virgin fibre to provide the strength required in forming the rolled lip on a cup. The longer fibre length allows this rolling to be achieved without fracturing the board. The paper is coated with low density polyethylene (LDPE). The majority of our products are single serve cups, used for hot beverages, which are coated on one sided. A smaller number of cups are coated both sides for use with cold beverages where condensation is an issue. The LDPE is a small component of the board – between 8 and 15% of the product by weight, depending whether coating is single or double sided.

The wood used to make the board is from well-managed plantation forests purpose-grown for manufacturing into wood and paper products. Paper is a renewable resource, a key point of difference between paper cups and alternatives made from non-renewable materials.

All manufacturing, including the making of paper cups, requires energy and therefore has associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, the wood products industry has comparatively lower GHG emissions per unit output, due in part to the use of wood processing residues as a renewable and essentially ‘carbon neutral’ biofuel. OjiFS tracks and publishes its total energy use including the percentage of process energy derived from biofuels as part of its annual sustainability reporting. As a group, Oji Fibre Solutions derives more than 80% of its primary energy demand from renewable sources including wood and pulping residues.

Where disposal is to landfill, municipal waste management contributes significant electricity to the national grid through the collection and use of landfill gas as generator fuel. The gas, which is mainly methane, originates from the anaerobic breakdown of organic wastes including paper which, being derived from plant material makes it a GHG-neutral biofuel.

Oji Foodservice Packaging Solutions recovers for recycling approximately 400 tons of paper residues from cup manufacturing processes per year.