Natural & renewable

ACE member companies are committed to sourcing their main raw material, wood fibre, from responsibly-managed forests. This ensures the forests remain a renewable resource for generations to come.

Growing more trees

In such forests, for every tree harvested at maturity, new saplings are planted or grow naturally. The majority of new trees are harvested during two thinnings: one at 25-35 years and one at 40-50 years. One tree is left growing to full maturity at 70-90 years before final felling.

Using wood fibre from forests with these sound management practices has a positive environmental outcome, as forest volume is actually increasing year on year: annual growth exceeds annual cuttings.

In Sweden and Finland, where most of the wood fibre for European beverage cartons originates, forests are expanding.

• in Sweden 80 million m³ of wood is harvested annually, while the annual growth is around 120 million m³ (2009 figures)
• in Finland, industrial logging is only around two thirds (60 million m³) of annual growth (100 million m³) (2010 figures)

This means that the volume of the growing stock of forests in Sweden and Finland alone has almost doubled, increasing from 3.5bn m³ in 1950 to 6bn m³ today.

All parts of the tree are used

After the tree is harvested, every part of it is used most effectively: the thickest trunks and lower parts of trees are used for construction or furniture timber, the thinner parts (5-15cm) for paper and paperboard (pulp), and the rest (bark, small branches, sawdust) for bio-energy, particularly in the paper mills.

Beverage cartons, which are made from paperboard, only account for a small amount of the tree used. One average-sized thinned tree can provide wood fibre for around 1,500 one-litre beverage cartons.