Ahlstrom PawPrint® Pet Food Packaging wins the American Forest & Paper Association Innovation in Sustainability Award

AHLSTROM OYJ, PRESS RELEASE, NOVEMBER 10, 2023 at 19:15 EET

Ahlstrom PawPrint® Pet Food Packaging, a sustainable alternative for plastic pet food packaging, has been granted the Innovation in Sustainability Award by the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) on November 10, 2023. AF&PA's annual awards are designed to recognize exemplary sustainability programs and initiatives in the paper and wood products manufacturing industry.

“Being acknowledged by AF&PA and receiving this award for PawPrint® Pet Food Packaging is a great achievement. It demonstrates how we are living up to our purpose to purify and protect with every fiber for a sustainable world by innovating more sustainable solutions,“ says Mark Ushpol, Executive Vice President for Ahlstrom’s Food and Consumer Packaging division.

Ahlstrom’s PawPrint® papers provide pet food brand owners functional and visually appealing pet food packaging, eliminating plastic and using fiber-based materials, while helping pet food manufactures achieve their sustainability metrics. They are made from renewable materials and are recyclable and compostable. What makes the product truly unique is that it is produced with Ahlstrom’s FluoroFree® proprietary technology, making it fully grease-resistant without the use of PFAS compounds. Ahlstrom’s next generation of PawPrint® packaging solutions additionally ensure pet food shelf-life requirements are met while achieving pet-palatability test results for the most distinguished of pet consumers.

“Pet food brands and consumers are continuing to move to more sustainable and recyclable options for their packaging needs,” says Travis Dahlke, Vice President, Food Packaging Americas who accepted the award on behalf of the North American Food team and everyone involved in ensuring this success. “Pet food is one of the most demanding applications for packaging in terms of grease resistance, and traditionally it has been difficult to provide plastic free and PFAS free solutions in this category. Ahlstrom’s pet food packaging offering is an excellent showcase of the innovation power of our teams.”

Ahlstrom’s PawPrint® manufacturing platforms are located at Rhinelander and Nicolet plants in Wisconsin, USA as well as in Europe.

Read more about PawPrint® Pet Food Packaging: https://www.ahlstrom.com/campaigns/Pet-Food-Packaging/
Read more about the American Forest & Paper Association: https://www.afandpa.org/

For more information, please contact:

Katja Ollila, Vice President, Group Marketing & Communications, katja.ollila@ahlstrom.com

Ahlstrom in brief
Ahlstrom is a global leader in combining fibers into sustainable specialty materials. Our purpose is to Purify and Protect, with Every Fiber, for a Sustainable World. Our vision is to be the Preferred Sustainable Specialty Materials Company for all our stakeholders. We serve five growing and distinctive end markets, which form the basis for our five divisions: Filtration, Food & Consumer Packaging, Healthcare, Building Materials, and Technical Materials. Our net sales in 2022 for continuing operations amounted to EUR 3.3 billion and we employ some 7,000 people. Read more at www.ahlstrom.com

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) in brief
The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) serves to advance U.S. paper and wood products manufacturers through fact-based public policy and marketplace advocacy. The forest products industry is circular by nature. AF&PA member companies make essential products from renewable and recyclable resources, generate renewable bioenergy and are committed to continuous improvement through the industry’s sustainability initiative —Better Practices, Better Planet 2030: Sustainable Products for a Sustainable Future. The forest products industry accounts for approximately 5% of the total U.S. manufacturing GDP, manufactures about $350 billion in products annually and employs about 925,000 people. The industry meets a payroll of about $65 billion annually and is among the top 10 manufacturing sector employers in 43 states.

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