Paper and cardboard packaging plays an important part in the circular economy. Because they are made from a renewable resource – trees – they are inherently sustainable and circular. After use, we can recycle them and give them a new lease of life! Recycling plants turn them into copy paper, boxes, gift cards, tissues, paper towels and more.

Wood and fibre processors can recycle paper and cardboard up to eight times into other products.

Even when the paper has reached the end of its useful life, it can be composted, and its nutrients returned to the soil. It is the ultimate in circularity, renewability, and sustainability. Aussie paper, tissue, and cardboard are sustainably sourced and better for the environment, and more than 54 per cent of these products made in Australia includes recycled content. Wood and fibre processors can recycle paper and cardboard up to eight times into other products.

According to the Victorian Recycling Industry Annual Report, Victoria’s local pulp and paper industry processed over 1.11 million tonnes of recovered paper and cardboard in 2019/20. It is then given a new lease of life and turned into copy paper, boxes, gift cards, tissue, paper towels and more. Unfortunately, out of the total of 1,674,100 tonnes of paper and cardboard waste collected, 559,390 tonnes were sent to landfill. Opal ANZ alone recycles 530,000 tonnes of used cardboard and waste paper every year. You can find out more about Opal’s collaboration with Planet Ark‘s Australian Circular Economy Hub here.