What does the Fastmarkets RISI OCC assessment measure?
Fastmarkets RISI's methodology for North American recovered paper (October 2024) gives the specification for its OCC (11) prices:
| Grade | Old Corrugated Containers (11), baled, full truckload, standard quality, no distressed lots |
|---|---|
| Basis | FOB seller's dock, US dollars per short ton (2,000 lb) |
| Regions | New England, New York, Buffalo, Midwest (Chicago), Southeast, Southwest, Los Angeles, San Francisco/Oakland, Pacific Northwest |
| Window | Orders taken in the month to date for shipment in the current month |
| Published | Monthly, usually on or around the 5th, at 3 pm Eastern |
| Form | A price range per region |
| Price type | Open-market transactions: spot deals and contract deals whose price is negotiated each month |
| Legacy source | Official Board Markets (OBM) |
Two details matter for contracts. First, trades priced entirely by formula off a published index are excluded from the assessment, so the index reflects negotiated prices, not other contracts. Second, no single data provider may contribute more than 25% of a key benchmark such as OCC (11) Midwest, or 50% of other assessments. Concluded transactions carry the most weight, then bids and offers, then participants' own views of the market.
What other indexes are used?
Secondary Materials Pricing (recyclingmarkets.net)
A membership index of post-consumer recovered material prices for eight regions across the US and Canada, which describes its pricing as weekly and supplied by purchasing officials. Kitsap County, WA bases its cardboard rebate on the Pacific Northwest series for the current month.
TTOBMA
A pulp market intelligence and price index firm. A consultant quoted by Waste Dive in July 2026 said its OCC index often runs $30 to $40 higher than other leading indexes because of calculation differences. If a buyer proposes a different index, compare like with like: a formula written for one index can be badly wrong on another.
Recycled Fiber 360 (ResourceWise)
A benchmark built from actual transactions rather than surveys, with transactions classified as contract or spot, and splits by region, source type (grocery, superstore, materials recovery facility) and indexed versus open tons. It runs on a "give to get" model: full data goes to companies that contribute their own.
Which region should my contract use?
The one your material actually moves in. A ResourceWise analysis argued that a national average can undervalue material for a retailer concentrated in a higher-priced region, and that a regional or custom-geography index is fairer to both sides. If you run sites in several regions, ask for each site to be priced off its own region rather than one series for all.
Why is my rebate below the index?
Because the index is a mill price at the seller's dock for full, baled truckloads of standard-quality material. Between your dock and that point, someone collects, consolidates, grades and ships your material, and the spread or percentage in your formula pays for it. The question is not whether there is a gap, but whether it is explained: what the buyer's spread covers, and whether freight or equipment is charged again on top. See freight and pricing formula.
How do I use the index in this site's tools?
Index values are licensed, so this site does not publish them. Read the value from your subscription, or from the buyer's settlement statement, and type it into the load calculator. The offer comparer runs your offers across a range of index values, so you can see how they behave whatever the market does.
Questions
- What is the OCC index?
- A published assessment of what mills pay for baled old corrugated containers. Most US contracts cite Fastmarkets RISI’s monthly OCC (11) range, FOB seller’s dock, in dollars per short ton, for one of nine US regions.
- When is the Fastmarkets OCC price published?
- Monthly, usually on or around the 5th of the month at 3 pm Eastern, according to its October 2024 methodology. It covers orders taken in the month to date for shipment in the current month.
- Why does my contract say "high side"?
- Fastmarkets publishes a range for each region. A contract must say whether it uses the high, the low or the midpoint of that range.
- Can I see the index value without a subscription?
- Usually not. Ask the buyer to show the value used on every settlement statement; that is a common contract term.