AF&PA Survey Reveals Decline in Recovered Paper Consumption

Recycling Today (06/02/26) Toto, Deanne

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) recently released its "66th Annual Paper Industry Capacity and Fiber Consumption Survey," which provides detailed data on U.S. paper industry capacity and production. The report was compiled by an AF&PA statistics team from a comprehensive poll of U.S. pulp and paper mills, representing nearly 87 percent of U.S. paper and paperboard industry capacity. It shows that fiber consumption declined by 3.5 percent last year, with recovered fiber consumption decreasing 4 percent and wood pulp consumption falling 3.2 percent. The printing-writing paper operating rate improved, though, topping 82.8 percent. Packaging paper production also increased 1.7 percent.

Read more on Recycling Today.