Rockline Industries is a privately held manufacturer of wet wipe, coffee filter, and baking cup products, headquartered in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The company was founded in in 1976 – but its eye is on the future of our nonwoven industry and our planet. The company has instilled a drive to push sustainability throughout its operations.

In 2019, the company undertook an initiative to source 100% of their palm-derived ingredients as Mass Balance certified under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) chain of custody certification scheme. After reaching that goal in 2020, they took the next steps and certify their wet wipe production sites. Rockline now holds RSPO certifications at their Springdale, AR; Booneville, AR; Russellville, AR; and Redditch, United Kingdom sites. They also have at least 95% of their sourced wood fibers certified by three major certification agencies.

Rockline is also developing new packaging that is recyclable and contains recycled content. They are members of How2Recycle to promote recycling education and transparency of recyclability claims. In their own operations, Rockline has reduced waste intensity in products they manufacture by 43% since 2009 by focusing on associate engagement and partnering with area recyclers to find outlets for hard to recycle material.

The company participates in continuous improvement in facilities: for example, Rockline manufacturing sites in Arkansas have participated in a strategic energy management program sponsored by Arkansas utility providers. This program has helped Rockline engage associates in energy saving behaviors and has instilled a renewed focus on facilities updates that can lead to energy savings.

In a more localized effort, Rockline Springdale planted a pollinator garden in an empty acre of land in front of the manufacturing facility.

All of these efforts are paying off. According to Randy Rudolph, President of Rockline Industries, “Last year, we set new baseline goals for key metrics in our operations. In just one year, we have made progress toward those goals by reducing solid waste in both coffee filter and wet wipe operations. Our New Jersey site experienced a 6% decrease in Scope 1 emissions this past year, due to the removal of No. 2 fuel oil from their facility. Meanwhile, our Iatric facility continued to reduce their normalized metrics for energy, greenhouse gas, wastewater, and solid waste this year by considerably increasing their production rates.”