Are your cartons recyclable?
Yes, our paperboard (gable top) cartons are recyclable. The technology to recycle paperboard cartons has been in commercial use for over 30 years. The process is called “hydropulping”. Hydropulping is the process that paper mills use to reclaim fiber from scrap or recovered paper products. The recovered cartons come into the paper mill in a baled or compacted form that is gradually fed into the pulper. The pulper is similar to a large household blender. The recovered cartons are mixed with water and vigorously stirred and blended using centrifugal force until the carton is completely destroyed, creating a paper pulp and pieces of the plastic coating. Chains dragging through the paper pulp remove the plastic coating. The fibers in the paper pulp are reclaimed and used to make other paper products such as paper towels, napkins and tissues.
Not all paper mills can use recovered or recycled paper products, and those paper mills that can recycle paperboard cartons may not be close to you. Therefore, you should check with your municipality or your waste hauler to determine if paperboard cartons can be recycled. You can also visit the Carton Council website to see if recycling is available in your area.
How is paper made?
Paper that is used for writing, and paperboard used to make gable top milk and juice cartons, are both made from trees – a natural, renewable resource. Paperboard uses wood fiber harvested from both hardwood trees (such as maple or oak) and softwood trees (such as pine and spruce). In the southeastern United States, where the Evergreen Packaging paper mills are located, pine trees are grown on tree farms and are harvested just like other crops such as corn, wheat and oats. However, the pine trees are harvested about every 16 years, instead of every year.
When the trees are harvested, the limbs are left in the fields and tilled into the soil to provide nutrients for the new tree seedlings that are planted where the trees were harvested. The logs are transported to a paper mill where the logs have the bark removed. The bark is used as either a fuel at the paper mill or as mulch for gardeners. The bare logs are utilized in one of two ways to make pulp for the paper making process.
In the first method, logs are mechanically pressed and ground against a rotating grinding wheel to separate the fibers. Paper made from the mechanical pulping process is used for papers that will be used quickly such as newspapers or newspaper inserts. Although the paper has good printing qualities, it is weak and discolors when exposed to light due to the residual lignin in the pulp. (Lignin is a natural chemical in the wood that holds the fibers together.)
In the second pulping method, the logs are chipped creating wood chips about the size of a quarter. The chips are added to a chemical and water solution that dissolves the lignin in the wood to help separate the fibers. Chemical pulps are used to make products such as paper bags or gable top cartons that require strength.
Pulp from both the mechanical and chemical pulping processes follow the same basic path to become paper or paperboard. The pulp is further ground in large machines called refiners to make the pulp very consistent. The pulp is then transferred to the paper machine in a mixture of about one part of pulp and 99 parts of water. The pulp slurry is put onto a wide wire (similar to screen door wire) where some of the water is removed. The pulp moves into a blanket section that squeezes more water out of the sheet and the paper or paperboard begins to form. The semi-dry sheet then moves into a series of large drying drums that are heated with steam to further dry the paper or paperboard. The paperboard used for gable top carton is then wound onto large rolls some as wide as 200 inches and as large as 72 inches in diameter.
Who is Evergreen Packaging owned by?
Evergreen Packaging is owned by Rank Group Ltd., an investment company, headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand.
Where are Evergreen Packaging facilities located?
Click here to see a map of our facilities.
My gable top packaging machine needs service. Who do I call?
For technical service, click here.
Can you fill dry products in your gable top cartons?
We currently supply cartons for a number of dry food products and growth in dry food markets is a priority to us. Although Evergreen Packaging equipment is primarily designed to fill liquid food products, we are very interested in working with customers on dry food particulate applications.
What is a gable top carton cross-section?
Carton Cross-Section refers to the "footprint" of the carton, and is usually expressed as the multiple of two adjacent carton sides in the format: Length x Length. Click here for information on our carton cross-sections.