Assets and Liabilities of Businesses Held for Sale and Disposals of Properties, Plants, Equipment and Businesses, Net - Additional Information (Detail) $ in Millions	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended
	Jul. 31, 2015 USD ($)	Jul. 31, 2014 USD ($)	Jul. 31, 2015 USD ($) Assets	Jul. 31, 2014 USD ($)
Long Lived Assets Held-for-sale [Line Items]
Gain (loss) on disposals of properties, plants and equipment, net	$ 7.0	$ 1.4	$ 9.3	$ 5.5
Timberland gains			24.3	17.1
Other Net Gains and Insurance Recoveries [Member]
Long Lived Assets Held-for-sale [Line Items]
Gain (loss) on disposals of properties, plants and equipment, net	1.1
Other Miscellaneous Equipment [Member]
Long Lived Assets Held-for-sale [Line Items]
Gain (loss) on disposals of properties, plants and equipment, net		0.2		0.8
Rigid Industrial Packaging & Services [Member] | Other Net Gains and Insurance Recoveries [Member]
Long Lived Assets Held-for-sale [Line Items]
Gain (loss) on disposals of properties, plants and equipment, net			$ 6.6
Rigid Industrial Packaging & Services [Member] | Assets Held for Sale [Member]
Long Lived Assets Held-for-sale [Line Items]
Gain (loss) on disposals of properties, plants and equipment, net	4.4
Rigid Industrial Packaging & Services [Member] | HBU and Surplus Properties [Member]
Long Lived Assets Held-for-sale [Line Items]
Number of assets group disposed | Assets			5
Flexible Products & Services [Member] | Assets Held for Sale [Member]
Long Lived Assets Held-for-sale [Line Items]
Gain (loss) on disposals of properties, plants and equipment, net		1.1		1.1
Land Management [Member]
Long Lived Assets Held-for-sale [Line Items]
Gain (loss) on disposals of properties, plants and equipment, net	$ 1.5	$ 0.1	$ 2.7	2.8
Paper Packaging [Member] | Asset Disposal [Member]
Long Lived Assets Held-for-sale [Line Items]
Gain (loss) on disposals of properties, plants and equipment, net				$ 0.8