AF&PA demands exclusion of paper bags from tax measures

ALBANY (Scrap Monster): The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) has raised concerns over inclusion of paper bags in the proposed tax resolution passed by Suffolk County, New York. Donna Harman, CEO, AF&PA issued a statement saying that the 100% recyclable paper bags must be excluded from such tax measures. The County had recently passed Resolution 1207 that proposes 5-cent tax on paper bags and single-use plastic bags.

AF&PA noted that the Suffolk County resolution has wrongfully penalized paper bags, fully knowing that the product is highly recycled and frequently reused. The paper recovery rate in the US has stood above 63% during the past six years. Also, 66.8% of all paper consumed in the US was recovered for recycling in 2015. It is highly inappropriate to include paper bags in measures aimed at limiting use of plastic bag usage, AF&PA noted. Such taxes not only increase costs for consumers, but also lead to distortion of free flow of recoverable materials such as paper.

Meantime, AF&PA noted that the total kraft paper shipments during July this year have decreased modestly by nearly 10.6% over same month the previous year to 133.0 thousand short tons. Out of this, bleached kraft paper shipments constituted 6.7 thousand short tons whereas the balance 126.3 thousand short tons accounted for unbleached kraft paper shipments. The total month-end inventories surged higher to 80.2 thousand short tons in July ’16. The cumulative shipments during the initial seven-month period of the year were down by 3.7% when matched with 2015.

It must be noted that the total kraft paper shipments during June had totaled 137.8 thousand short tons. Out of this, bleached kraft paper shipments constituted 7.7 thousand short tons whereas the balance 130.1 thousand short tons accounted for unbleached kraft paper shipments.

The AF&PA statistics indicate that the US boxboard production dropped by 2.5% in July 2016, when matched with the previous year. However, when compared with the previous month, the July boxboard production climbed higher by 2.24%. The production of unbleached kraft boxboard and recycled boxboard production decreased over the previous year. However, the production was up when matched with June 2016. The solid bleached boxboard and liner production dropped when compared with July 2015.

According to statistics, the US containerboard production in July this year was 0.7% lower when compared with the same month a year before. The month-on-month average daily production has increased slightly by 0.3% during the month. The containerboard operating rate for July dropped to 93.9% and the year-to-date operating rate of 94.4% was 1.7 percentage points lower compared to the same period in 2015.

About AF&PA

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) is the national trade association of the forest products industry, representing manufacturers of approximately 80% of the U.S. pulp and paper industry and 50% of the wood building material capacity. AF&PA was formed on January 1, 1993 by the merger of the National Forest Product Association and the American Paper Institute.

AF&PA's primary work is public policy advocacy at the international, national, state and local levels. The Association also serves as the forest products industry's primary statistical clearinghouse for manufacturing, production and capacity data.