The wood used to produce pulp mostly comes from tree thinnings and waste products from saw mills, the bulk of whose timber production goes into construction and furniture making. In fact, globally, the paper industry only uses around 12% of the timber felled every year.

The industry once relied on woods such as spruce, pine, larch, fir and cedar, but now woods such as birch, aspen and other hardwoods are also used, particularly for fluting. Australasian Eucalyptus has also been successfully cultivated in warm climates, including South America, Spain and Portugal.

Different species yield different grades of wood fibre, with location also playing a role. Northern Europe trees are popular as a result of their long fibres, providing strength for high quality papers. Trees grown closer to the Equator, on the other hand, tend to have shorter fibres.

Pulp is generally manufactured using one of two methods:

• Mechanical pulping, where woodchips are subjected to shearing using a rotating steel disc and fixed plate. This method results in 90% yield, and is often used for bulk production of pulp for the newsprint and packaging board industries.
• Chemical pulping, which results in a lower yield, using either the sulphate (Kraft) or sulphite process. In the Kraft process, caustic soda and sodium sulphate are used. The sulphite process, which tends to result in easily bleached pulps, is becoming increasingly popular in disposable sectors. The by-produced waste resulting from the chemical processes can be reprocessed as a fuel substitute and several paper mills have thus become power suppliers to local electricity grids.

A combination of these two methods can also be used, resulting in products such as TMP (thermomechanical pulp) or CTMP (chemi-thermomechanical pulp).

Although recycling of waste paper is proving a useful alternative source for paper pulp, paper cannot be recycled indefinitely as the fibres become progressively shorter and weaker, ultimately losing their papermaking qualities.

Pulp is either bleached (generally using hydrogen peroxide) or left unbleached. Bleaching ensures that the pulps retain strength and do not discolour, as well as providing a high level of purity, which is required for industries such as the medical industry.

The pulp is then either fed straight into an integrated paper mill or dried, baled and exported as raw pulp.

The primary purpose of packaging is to protect goods in transit, storage and distribution, thus preventing waste through breakage, spoilage and contamination. Its secondary purpose is to provide information to distributors and consumers about the product.

Globally, paper and board is used to package 40% of all products sold in packaged form. Packaging materials must meet legal and regulatory requirements, which may affect the choice of wood fibre used for paper and board packaging.

Other materials used for packaging include plastics and glass.