Paper Products Back in the Spotlight
The Paper & Packaging Board Sets New Initiative to Spur Paper Industry Growth
“The paper industry has stabilized after a period of reconsolidation, it’s now ready to grow with revised strategies and goals,” says Dave Zehnacker, First Source Worldwide, LLC (FSW)’s Color Lab Manager. “We’re ready to support this shift with our product lines that offer high quality and field support paired with cost effectiveness.” Zehnacker goes on to explain the stimulation of the economy has caused new growth opportunities in paper as consumers and businesses once again have room in disposable income for paper products such as marketing materials, party supplies, and packaging components.
With the launch of the How Life Unfolds Campaign by the Paper & Packaging Board this month (August 2015), the spotlight returns to the industry to feature paper’s value to everyday life. From a ticket to a baseball game to the letter sent in the mail, the paper industry is refocusing to show its importance in the nostalgic comforts of paper products, its sustainability solutions for packaging, and its overall relativity to our modern world.
Paper offers a physical keepsake for a fond memory, not a digital upload to a cloud, making it something memorable to hold onto.
The nostalgia of paper products can be found in many of our own keepsakes. Saved ticket stubs from first concerts, letters mailed from camp, or old pictures stored in albums are all paper products in which we hold beloved memories. This warm attitude toward paper products is what the board is currently striving to revive in people when considering paper options. They’re putting value into the ability to hold on to these items as mementos of fond memories instead of digitally losing the receipt, email or cloud-stored photo.
Stationery, stamps, cash, newspapers, magazines, coffee cups, and many other daily used items are highlighted for relativity to our everyday livelihood. In the midst of many more environmentally focused campaigns disapproving of the use of paper products, a strategy change has been made to help consumers realize the sustainability paper products offer. Smart forestation and sustainability initiatives combine with the reminiscence as part of the overall program to boost national paper use.
Paper can be sustainable, especially with the recent efforts to improve its environmental impact.
For more disposable needs, paper packaging is rebranded as recyclable and more environmentally friendly then its popular plastic counterpart. This is catching on with millennials as they make their purchasing decisions. Soups packaged in cartons, banning of plastic bags in some state’s grocery stores and even bottled water being found in a box form of packaging, are all citations of how paper products are finding their way back into the lives of our now biggest generation. Research has also shown students still prefer to work from printed textbooks and taking notes on paper is more stimulating for the brain.
Selecting dyes that conform to specific conditions is vital for papermaking. It is important to partner with experts in analyzing current manufacturing processes and reviewing which dyes and chemicals will suit different conditions, such as alkaline or hypochlorite residue levels. Choosing products that work within your current environment guarantees your end result will match what you expected.
Will the campaign boost the industry? We’re going to find out. Until then, enjoy the surge in original paper packaging and newfound need to stay relevant in print design. With paper in the spotlight, remaining competitive in great paper and packaging manufacturing, selection, design, and strategic environmental considerations will be to your benefit.
First Source Worldwide was born in the paper industry. Get the technical support you need to service your paper manufacturing backed by quality products and a full-scale paper lab.
About the Author: Courtney Cerniglia
