UK announce new coated board guidelines

Following months of discussion, OPRL (On-Pack Recycling Label), the body responsible for the use of recycling symbols in the UK, have published new guidelines which include coated cartonboard.  The new guidelines state that

“Coated paper and card quality tolerances immediately tighten up to a maximum of 15% plastic by weight for Recycle status and reduce further to 10% in January 2023, giving markets time to respond”

The original proposal from CPI (Confederation of Paper Industries) was to immediately reduce the limit to 5% but now board containing up to 15% plastic can, until 2023, continue to be labelled as Recyclable.  Of course, the cartonboard industry’s aim is to remove the need for plastic barriers completely and a lot of progress continues to be made in this respect. The OPRL guidelines are currently only available to their direct members but you can find their press release here.