The Cortec Coated Products (CCP) division of Cortec in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, has won the Wisconsin Recycling Excellence Award. CCP is one of 11 organizations that received the award this year from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in recognition of outstanding efforts to recycle and reduce waste. CCP’s award falls under the category of ‘Projects and Initiatives’ that have led to the recycling of more material and/or better recycling cost-effectiveness.

In addition to sourcing most of its paper rolls from recycled content, CCP’s specialty is to apply a corrosion-inhibiting coating that still allows the paper to be recycled after use. This is an important environmental benefit for manufacturers and distributors that use Cortec VpCI Paper to package and protect metal parts in a variety of industries. It is also an advantage for CCP’s waste-handling processes. Converting its coated VpCI Papers into marketable rolls and different sizes of sheeting inevitably leaves behind a large amount of paper scrap. CCP collects the scrap, compacts it into bales, and sends it to a recycling broker that sorts and resells the scrap to various paper/recycling plants. Cortec environmental specialist, Derek Jensen, estimates that since 2017, CCP has recycled 616 tons of paper, equal to approximately 12,320 trees saved.