Cardpak President Named Chairman of PPC

Published: May 05, 2008

Alexandria, VA | The Paperboard Packaging Council (PPC) has named Tony Petrelli its chairman for a two-year term. His election was announced at the national trade association’s recent annual membership meeting.

Petrelli is president and chief operating officer of CardPak Inc., Solon, OH, a leader in sustainable paperboard packaging designs and manufacturing solutions. He has more thna 25 years of packaging experience, including management and executive roles in sales, marketing, business development, and operations with the Packaging Corp. of America, Tenneco Packaging, and Caraustar Industries.

In his inaugural “State of the Association” address to PPC members, Petrelli noted that growing sensitivity to the environment on the part of consumers and packaging decision makers represented a great opportunity for the paperboard packaging industry.

“Bad ‘facts’ on our materials and lack of appreciation of the benefits of paper-based packaging are widespread,” he said. “Consumers know that glass, cans, newspapers, and corrugated containers are recyclable. They should know that paperboard cartons also are recyclable and are being recycled at a profit by many American municipalities.”

He continued, “In the world of packaging materials, paperboard is unique because the source material it is made from is renewable. Suppliers to paperboard packaging grow, harvest, and replant trees just like vegetables. Not only that, but trees actually absorb carbon dioxide, a major contributor to climate change.”

Petrelli said, “We simply must do more to promote the environmental advantages of our products. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

He then outlined PPC’s broad public-information initiative, set for launch this year and continuing into 2009. “We have already laid the groundwork for a National Paperboard Packaging Week in April 2009,” he said. PPC has begun working with the US Environmental Protection Agency and other organizations in developing a multimedia outreach plan that includes case studies on successful paperboard recycling programs, information on how trees absorb greenhouse gas and a tree-planting program targeted at school children.

“Timed to coincide with Earth Day and National Arbor Day,” Petrelli said, “this will give us an excellent chance to tell paperboard packaging’s superb environmental story.”