Oji Fibre Solutions Foodservice Packaging is one of Australasia's largest fibre-based packaging suppliers. Our packaging operations pride themselves on innovative products and on ability to provide smart packaging solutions. We are committed to using sound, sustainable principles in our business operations.
We supply paper cups for a wide variety of uses including cold drinks, hot beverages, hot chips, ice cream, popcorn and many other products that benefit from well-designed and crafted packaging.
Since we started, we’ve had the great fortune to work with some of Australia’s (and the world’s) best loved food and hospitality brands. Today, we’re bringing this experience to creating better products and using our resources in a way that minimises our environmental impacts.
WE'RE SERIOUS ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT
The Oji Group Environmental Policy requires Oji Fibre Solutions to help create a truly enriched and sustainable society by developing business activities that harmonise with the environment from a global perspective. The policy calls for Oji Fibre Solutions to make autonomous efforts to achieve further environmental improvement, and aggressively drive forwards its forest recycling, paper recycling, and global warming counter measures.
SBS BOARD
The paper we use for our cups is known as SBS board (Solid Bleached Sulphate). It is a paperboard with a coating of polyethylene (LDPE) either on 1 side or both sides of the paper. The LDPE is a small component of the board – less than 15% of the product by weight.
SBS board is very similar to the board in widespread use in milk cartons & juice cartons, known as liquid packaging board. Our SBS board uses 100% virgin fibre from sustainable, managed forests and provides the strength required in the board. In particular forming the rolled lip on a cup places a lot of strain on the board.
The longer fibre length allows this rolling to be achieved without breaking the board and keep the specifications consistent to ensure good lid fit every time. Use of virgin fibre for cups is standard practice worldwide.
RENEWABLE RESOURCES
The wood used to make the board is from sustainable plantation forests, purpose-grown for manufacturing into wood and paper products. This means the raw material used to manufacture paper cups is from a renewable resource, a key point of difference between paper cups and alternatives made from non-renewable materials.
In common with other materials, paper, including that used in making paper cups, requires energy and has associated Greenhouse gas emissions. The wood products industry however can have generally lower GHG emissions per unit output. This is due, in part, to wood from sustainable sources being recognised as a ‘carbon store’ and the use of wood residues as a renewable and essentially ‘carbon neutral’ bio fuel.
Oji tracks and publishes its total energy use including the percentage of process energy derived from bio fuel as part of its annual sustainability reporting. We currently derive up to 80% of primary energy demand from renewable sources.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT
HOW WE ARE WORKING
FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
FIND OUT MORE
Tests have shown that within 4-12 weeks, the paper component of the cups will have completely disappeared.
This relies on the cup being placed into an appropriate environment with exposure to oxygen – a cup buried directly in landfill will not decompose.
Households with compost bins can tear the cup into small pieces and place it in their bin – within several weeks the paper component of the cup will compost.
Disposable cups made from inorganic materials do not degrade and would require specific collection and recycling systems to enable recovery of the materials. The cost effectiveness and overall environmental impact of such systems would likely require a site and material- specific assessment.