You Know Us Better Than You Think

The Recovered Fiber Group (RFG)–Working Behind the Scenes

fiber or wood to produce new gypsum facing paper or paperboard products. Synergies are created with Caraustar’s other divisions by providing recovered fiber to the Mill Group, and assisting the Industrial & Consumer Products Group and the Custom Packaging Group with consultation and marketing services for their customers’ paper recycling needs.

The 1.35 million tons of recovered fiber the RFG managed in 2001 came from many sources, including both post-consumer and post-industrial generators. These two classifications of raw material are important in the manufacturing of new paper and paperboard products.

Post-consumer recovered fiber is defined as what has been used by the consumer and returned for recycling. For example, Caraustar trucks are often seen behind grocery, retail or discount stores collecting bales of old corrugated containers. Caraustar recycling bins are also placed in business offices where office paper is collected for recycling.

Partnering with Businesses Makes Financial Sense

Caraustar’s RFG personnel work with businesses in conducting waste audits of their facilities to reduce or eliminate disposal costs or to help businesses generate revenue from their recycling programs. This collected material is also considered post-consumer. After collection of the recovered material from post-consumer generators, it is brought to one of Caraustar’s recycling facilities to be sorted, baled and stored in inventory for delivery to a consuming mill to be recycled into paperboard products.

The RFG services many markets to recover fiber, and some of its largest single-source volumes of fiber come from paperboard manufacturing and converting facilities throughout the country. Caraustar has established partnerships with paper mills to recover the trim and damaged paper from the paper making process to be recycled as paperboard products. This type of fiber is considered post-industrial because it is a by-product of the manufacturing process and has not yet reached the consumer as an end product.

The RFG marketing of recovered fiber spans the globe. In addition to fulfilling some of the needs Caraustar’s own mills may have for fiber, the RFG markets recovered fiber to both domestic and foreign paper mills. The RFG also provides purchasing services for mill groups that do not have their own recovered fiber division. This vast marketing network enables the RFG to provide its customers with the highest revenue generation for their fiber. This dedication to securing new sources of low-cost fiber for Caraustar mills, as well as its worldwide fiber sales and trading operations, has made the RFG a leader in the global marketplace for recovered fiber.

Dedicated to Preserving the Environment

Caraustar’s dedication to the environment begins with the RFG. By collecting, processing and selling recovered fiber to its customers, the RFG plays an important role in the reduction of material sent to landfills or incinerators, while providing an environmentally friendly and low-cost alternative to virgin fiber. While mainstream recycling programs have really come to the forefront in the past ten years, Caraustar’s RFG has been recycling paper for over 60 years.

Caraustar is committed to environmental responsibility. Working together with Caraustar’s other business groups, suppliers and customers in the development of new processes, products and technologies helps reduce the amount of solid waste going to landfills.

From recovered fiber processing to the supermarket shelf and into your home, Caraustar continues to bring you the products and packaging that are already familiar to you. You know us better than you think.

The process of recovering fiber

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