Make your business more sustainable

Recycled and fresh fiber paperboard offer numerous advantages over other materials.

Eco-friendly and functional

One of the largest challenges the packaging world is facing today is the transition away from plastic towards more sustainable packaging materials. The problems with plastics are both the fossil raw material and the massive amounts of plastics polluting our waters.

Paperboards like Invercote and Incada are much more friendly to our planet and avoid both these problems, by being:

Biogenic, based on wood.
Non-toxic, suitable for food packaging.
Completely biodegradable in nature or in seawater and works well in composting.

Additionally, paperboard has fantastic functionality by being light and strong, yet flexible and easy to handle in packaging production.

Replacing other materials

Paperboard can be used, with significant gains, to replace other packaging materials. Its properties make it a good choice for many packaging solutions. For example, replacing:

Plastic – Significantly lower carbon footprint. In many applications, using paperboard can save between 75% and 99% of the fossil carbon emissions compared to a similar packaging application in plastic. 

Glass - Lighter and less brittle. The weight of a paperboard container is often a fraction of a glass jar of the same size, making transportation much less fuel-demanding. 

Metal - Lower energy use. The fossil energy used to produce a metal can for food packaging is usually enough to produce 10 similar paperboard packages, and still have a lower emission of fossil CO₂.

Easy to recycle

Paperboard and paper-based materials are easy to recycle, and the recycling systems are well established, even though they vary in different parts of the world. Still, in general, paper is the material that has the highest recycling rate worldwide. 

Holmen promotes and supports recycling even though we are only manufacturing paperboard from fresh fibres. Regardless of how many times a paper fibre is recycled, it did once grow on a tree. 

After their primary use, our products are a valuable input to the recycling systems. According to the forestry certification system, PEFC, an input of almost 40 per cent of fresh fibre is needed in every recycling cycle. 

The interdependency between fresh and recycled fibre is so strong that you can’t discuss one without discussing the other. System-wise, recycling gives environmental credibility to the production of fresh fibre, and the recycling industry is essential for the good husbandry of fibres.

It is important to realise that fibres have different roles depending on where they are in the process, which spans from fresh fibres to fibres recycled so many times that they have lost almost all of their original properties. The latter are only suited for simple applications, whereas fresh fibres have a better performance, are more hygienic and approved for food contact.  

There is a need for both fresh and recycled fibre – and the choice between them should be based on your functional needs.