History

Canusa traces its roots back to 1974 when Founder and President, Bruce W. Fleming, began his career in the paper and recycling industries while studying at Princeton University. Fleming resurrected the University’s recycling program and completed his senior thesis on the economics of producing paper from recycled fiber. After three years at Garden State Paper Company, the world’s first 100% recycled newsprint mill, Fleming founded what eventually became Canusa in 1981 as a domestic trader of recovered fiber.

In 1985, Fleming partnered with the Canadian-based company Cascades to form Cascades USA. Partially focused on procuring recycled fiber for the Cascades’ mills, the company’s growth over the next several years prompted a mutual desire to establish the company’s independence and a subsequent agreement for a management buyout of Cascades equity interest. It was then that Canusa Corporation was officially born.

In 1989, Canusa expanded to begin trading containerboard and other industrial papers for the packaging industry. Canusa soon developed a niche selling containerboard for South America’s banana and fruit industry. This sparked Canusa’s international focus and the advent of Canusa Paper & Packaging. Today, Canusa Paper & Packaging is one of the world’s leading independent providers of products and supply chain solutions for producers and consumers of containerboard and other packaging papers.

In 2002, Canusa merged its recycling operations with its most significant competitor, Hershman Recycling, to form Canusa Hershman Recycling. Subsequently, “CHRC” co-founded Newport CH International to focus on selling into the growing Asian market. Together, CHRC and Newport now trade more than two million tons per year of recovered materials and 120,000 tons per year of plastic resins.

Canusa and its affiliates continue to evolve and expand by delivering quality, sustainable products, superior market knowledge and service, and creative and effective financing and logistics solutions.