International Women’s Day is a time to celebrate women’s achievements and reflect on the importance of gender equality and inclusivity. In Canada’s paper packaging industry, women play a vital role in driving sustainability, from leadership positions to frontline operations, contributing their insights and experience to advance environmental sustainability.
As we mark International Women’s Day on March 8, the Paper and Paperboard Packaging Environmental Council (PPEC) is proud to recognize the contributions of women in our industry. PPEC recently sat down with Paulina Leung, Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) at member company Emterra Group, to discuss her insights on industry issues, including the importance of consumer education, the challenge of contamination, the need to ‘onshore’ recycling, and the importance of data.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q. What does an average day as Chief Sustainability Officer at Emterra Group look like for you?
Working as the CSO in the family business is different than being a CSO in another organization, as many parts of my role are unwritten and not in the “job description.” For Emterra, sustainability represents the financial, human, and environmental aspects of the company, so there is a lot of inward reflection while trying to anticipate the demands of external factors – customers, legislation and regulations, competitors, and suppliers. I’m a morning person, so my day starts with a quick work out or hot yoga to refresh and move my mind and body.
Q. How has the industry changed in the nearly 20 years you have been with Emterra?
Changes in this industry can be categorized as either incremental or step-wise. In terms of incremental, while the diversity of people has expanded, we still have a long way to go to make this industry’s workforce mirror the communities it services. In terms of major step-wise, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is rapidly developing, and because of these new policies, the value chain for recycling is changing, with new players entering the industry and existing players changing their business strategies, plans, and investments.
Q. Speaking of EPR, as residential packaging recycling programs evolve to producer responsibility models, we expect to see more paper-based packaging materials collected in Blue Boxes. What needs to be done to ensure those materials are actually recycled across Canada?
The new EPR regulations have various types of targets and most of the time, we look to the material recovery facility (MRF) as the black box to achieve those targets. But the first milestone in achieving targets is actually at the point of collection. If the collection system doesn’t generate enough quality material, it doesn’t matter how much technology is in the MRF. As such, collection systems should prioritize consumer engagement and incentivize behaviours that increase the placement of quality and compliant materials into recycling bins.
To ensure paper packaging is actually recycled across Canada, it’s important to measure performance consistently. Harmonized targets would improve data collection, increase transparency in producer and producer responsibility organization (PRO) reporting, and reduce the administrative burden for businesses. Better data would also support more informed policy and investment decisions. Simply put, targets should be calculated using the same type of numerators and denominators across Canada.
Q. What has Emterra learned about effectively diverting materials and transforming waste into resources — particularly for paper-based packaging — across the different sectors you serve?
First, I’d emphasize the importance of global politics and end markets. Over the past two decades, the recovery of paper-based packaging has experienced many cycles, many of which were caused by geopolitical reasons. China’s Operation Green Fence (implemented in 2013) and National Sword (implemented in 2018) changed the global recycling industry. It opened up new markets in new countries and highlighted the need to “onshore” recycling in Canada and in North America. Not surprisingly, that desire to further onshore is growing due to the current trade challenges. The need for recyclers to have a diversified customer base can never be underestimated.
Second, the amount of contamination in recycling streams, even in two stream printed paper and packaging programs, continues to grow, which makes it more challenging to effectively divert materials and transform them into valuable resources.
This is a function of a few factors. Consumers want to recycle, and they would rather put something they are uncertain about in the “blue box” than discard it. And the proliferation of packaging — often without the corresponding growth in end markets — makes it more confusing for consumers to recycle and for MRFs to profitably, effectively and efficiently sort recyclables.
As an industry, we still have not cracked the nut in terms of how to effectively educate consumers about what and how to recycle.
Q. We are seeing more interest in addressing polycoated paper materials, what are the opportunities and challenges in dealing with those materials at scale in Canada?
I believe the increased interest is driven by EPR. One challenge is that current buyers and users of post-consumer polycoated paper materials — like coffee cups and takeout containers — need to inform MRFs and others in the value chain if their specifications will change, especially if the proportion of these materials in mixed paper and gable top bales increases significantly. If polycoated paper materials are collected on a large scale, mixed paper customers may not be able to accept mixed paper bales. Gable top buyers may need to conduct further testing to determine acceptable levels of coffee cups and takeout containers in their bales.
Q. What advice would you give to women looking to enter or elevate themselves in the paper packaging industry, and specifically in the area of sustainability?
Find difficult problems and raise your hand to help solve them. This will give you visibility within your organization and provide a learning opportunity from a professional development and technical perspective.
And be prepared for unscheduled opportunities to talk to a major customer or a senior leader in your organization. Have a 30 second description ready to be used in those moments to talk about the key projects you are working on and why they are important to the organization.
