Paper
Even though it happened as recently as 2017, the days when China was importing 28 million tonnes of recovered fibre in a single calendar year are now a fast-fading memory. According to Ercan Yürekli, guest speaker at our Budapest meeting in October 2019, Chinese fibre import volumes are likely to drop as low as 5 million tonnes in 2020, thereby further redrawing the international trading landscape of yesteryear.
But as an industry, we have always seen challenges as opportunities. Moments after outlining the daunting scale of the decline in China’s overseas fibre purchases, Mr Yürekli from the national association of Turkish paper and plastic recyclers and collectors (TÜDAM) was focusing on possible alternative outlets. His own country, he revealed, is expecting domestic paper industry capacity to jump from around 4.2 million tonnes in 2019 to between 6 and 7 million tonnes by the year 2023 – and yet the country is struggling to push its collection rate beyond 40%. Turkish recovered fibre imports have already soared from just over 300,000 tonnes in 2015 to nearer 1 million tonnes in 2019, with further growth to perhaps 2 to 3 million tonnes envisaged by 2023.
As noted at our meeting in Singapore last May, 2019 also brought a significant increase in sales opportunities in other countries too, including most notably India, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Such observations provide us with much-needed hope for the future given that, in Europe for example, there is a differential of almost 8 million tonnes between the 56.7 million tonnes of paper and board collected for recycling each year in Europe and the 48.8 million tonnes consumed. This surplus is structural in nature, with exports to markets outside of Europe representing the only obvious pressure valve.
Even though China was buying in 2019, its focus was on purchases of US material. Thus, last year was characterized largely by a combination of high stocks along the chain, difficulties in finding export markets for our fibre and pressure on prices. Indeed, values close to zero or even into negative territory have been widely mentioned by industry members, alongside comments about the near impossibility of imposing recycling fees on suppliers to render viable some of our more marginal sorting and processing operations.
The bottom line is that margins have been so compromised on certain grades that there has been no incentive to sort. Was this in the dream scenario when the circular economy was first envisaged? And how should we as an industry respond to such challenging market conditions? More than ever before, our point of difference must be production of high-quality materials that conform absolutely to the standards, needs and expectations of our individual customers. If we fail in this regard, a significant proportion of materials will struggle to find profitable outlets or, indeed, any outlets at all.
As pointed out in Budapest by our General Delegate Sébastien Ricard of Paprec Recyclage, the purchase of manufactured goods from China and the subsequent return of the recyclable packaging to that same country for production of new packaging materials had created over many years the perfect example of a circular economy. But there has been little credit or appreciation for the carbon dioxide emissions saved in this way.
What these people should also know is that mills and governments throughout the world – not just in China – have become increasingly demanding with regard to the quality they are prepared to accept. Quality is not an add-on extra; it is an absolute necessity if business is to be done.
With more limited export options and new capacity developments insufficient to absorb a recovered fibre surplus, it is clear that Europe and other traditional exporting regions of the world will need to devote more time and research to developing new markets – and potentially new product outlets – for recovered fibre. It was therefore interesting and encouraging to hear from our Division’s Vice President Martin Leander that the insulation and hygiene sectors in Sweden have been trialling wider use of recovered fibre in their products.
Another inspiring thought was voiced in Singapore by our Honorary President Dominique Maguin. Overall demand for paper would expand as a result of global population growth, he said, and the best way to produce that paper would be from recycled fibre because it was less expensive and less polluting.
“Our point of difference must be production of high-quality materials that conform absolutely to the standards, needs and expectations of our individual customers.”
Jean-Luc Petithuguenin
PRESIDENT PAPER DIVISION
IMPORTANT FACTS
Made from vegetable fibres called cellulose, paper as we know it today was first created in China more than 2000 years ago. Since the advent of the printing press in the 15th century, its use has spread across all continents to the extent that, currently, it is hard to imagine the world without this versatile material. Around 420 million tonnes of paper and cardboard are produced worldwide every year, with well over half of the raw material coming from recovered sources.
Some 50-60% of recovered paper comes from industry and business. This includes paper trimmings, cuttings and shavings from manufacturers and converters, as well as goods discarded before they reach the consumer, such as unsold newspapers and magazines. The remaining recovered fibre comes from households.
THE NEED FOR FREE TRADE
Recovered fibre collections in, notably, North America and Europe easily exceed local consumption needs and so overseas trade has become a major component of this market. But despite the environmental, social and economic advantages of the worldwide trade in recovered paper, flows have been disrupted over recent years. China established itself as the leading importer of recovered fibre, buying around 30 million tonnes per annum from overseas suppliers at one stage. However, the Chinese government has recently imposed more stringent import rules, with the result that overseas purchases are believed to have declined below 10 million tonnes in 2019 and are expected to drop still further.
Similarly restrictive import measures have also been introduced by other countries in Asia which had been leading buyers of surplus material from Europe, thus impacting the global market and creating widespread concern over the diminishing outlets for the world’s excess volumes because of a move away from the free trade principles supported by BIR.
RECYCLING PROCESSES
According to industry estimates, paper can be recycled anywhere from 3 to 8 times. Each time recycling occurs, the fibres become shorter and weaker, and virgin pulp must be introduced into paper production to maintain the strength and quality of the fibre. Through this process, recovered paper and forest-based products complement each other ecologically and economically.
The recycling of paper follows a series of steps which may vary depending on the type of paper and its degree of deterioration.
Sorting: Paper products must be separated according to their composition and degree of deterioration. Different types of paper can sometimes be mixed. Others, such as paperboard, are recycled using a single-grade process, meaning that no other type of paper can be mixed in during its processing.
Baling: Large quantities of paper are packed using hydraulic machines which apply enormous pressure to compact recovered paper into blocks that are easier and more cost-effective to transport.
Shredding: Recovered fibre is shredded into smaller pieces and mixed with water to make pulp.
Washing: The pulp is washed, refined and cleaned, then turned into a slush that undergoes filtering through screens and other separation processes to remove contaminants such as ink, clay, dirt, plastic and metals. Dyes, coatings and other additives can be introduced during this process. Water is continuously drained and cleaned for reuse.
Bleaching: In order to whiten paper, the pulp can be bleached using hydrogen peroxide and chlorine.
Pressing: The resulting paper sheet, known as “web”, is pressed between massive rollers to extract as much of the remaining water as possible and to ensure uniform smoothness and thickness. The semi-dry web is then run through heated dryer rollers to remove any remaining water.
Rolling: The finished paper is processed into large rolls ready to be manufactured again into new consumer products.
