Paper & board sustainability
Paper & board has the highest recycling rate of the major packaging materials — but its production footprint is strongly product- and fibre-specific, so MatQuo reports what it can verify and is explicit about what it cannot.
Production footprint — a documented data gap
MatQuo does not yet publish a single "paper = X kg CO₂e/kg" figure. A credible number is product-specific (kraftliner, testliner, fluting, cartonboard, sack kraft each differ) and depends heavily on virgin vs recycled fibre and the mill's energy — much of which is biomass-based, which complicates a simple fossil-CO₂ number. Rather than invent a generic value, MatQuo leaves this as an explicit gap pending extraction of product-level EPDs (CEPI / FEFCO / recognised producer EPDs). When added, values will be kept product-specific.
Recycling & circularity (verified)
EU paper & board recycling is about 75.1% overall and 83.1% for packaging (EPRC/CEPI 2024) — the highest of the main packaging materials, against an 85% 2030 target. An important caveat: the EPRC/CEPI definition differs in scope from the EU packaging-directive rates used for plastic and glass, so these figures should not be compared head-to-head with those. Fibres also shorten with each cycle, so recycled content, technical recyclability and the achieved rate remain three distinct things.
Virgin vs recycled fibre
Recycled fibre generally saves energy and water versus virgin pulping, but virgin fibre is still needed to keep the loop supplied and to meet strength grades. A responsible comparison requires like-for-like boundaries and grades — which is why MatQuo will only publish virgin-vs-recycled numbers once compatible product EPDs are in the dataset.
Energy, water & transport
Pulp and paper is energy- and water-intensive, though much mill energy is biomass-derived. Water metrics must be read carefully (scarcity-weighted vs litres are different things). For shipping, estimate reel and sheet weights with the paper reel and paper sheet/pallet calculators and lane emissions with the freight CO₂ calculator.
Methodology & limitations
Recycling rates: EPRC/CEPI definition and geography (not the EU packaging-directive method). Production GWP: not yet in the verified dataset — a documented gap, no fallback number used.
Related calculators
Sources
EPRC/CEPI European paper recycling monitoring (2024). Production-footprint EPDs: pending (documented gap).