The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE) and its members have reported back on progress made towards their commitment on wood fibre traceability.

It comes after the organisation made commitments in line with Chain of Custody certification and traceability, in 2007.

Proforest, an independent not-for-profit organisation specialising in the natural resource management field, has tracked development towards its targets each year from 2007 to 2015.

Proforest has just completed its 10th year of progress reporting and monitoring to cover the period of 1 January to 31 December 2019. The latest report found that all 46 of the manufacturing plants run by three of ACE’s members were Chain of Custody-certified.

It also revealed that all of the mills and traders that provide LPB (liquid packaging board) to the ACE members were Chain of Custody-certified and that ACE members were all using 100 per cent wood fibre from legal and acceptable origins.

ACE has previously been under scrutiny after a Zero Waste Europe study found that beverage carton recycling rates were 6.5 per cent lower than what ACE were estimating.

By making ‘incremental changes in procurement from their supplying mills’, ACE members have been using more wood fibre that is fully certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

Members have gone from using 11 per cent FSC-certified fibre in 2007 to 70 per cent in 2019.

“The results from this report underscore the beverage carton industry’s continued commitment of ensuring sustainable sourcing of its raw materials and incorporating this commitment into their business strategies,” said Annick Carpentier, Director General of ACE.

“ACE continues to actively work with its stakeholders at EU and national levels to promote sustainable forest management and the wider use of certification systems. We thank Proforest and our members for contributing to this report.”