Speaking at the Convention in Madrid at the end of May 2001, Mr Arages, who is also Vice President of the Recycling Committee of CEPI, the body that represents the paper and board industry of the European Union and President of Recipap which brings together paper makers and recoverers in Spain, said that “stable and adequate prices” would bring many benefits. Development of paper recovery would be sustained and no longer suffer the effects of highs and lows in pricing. Recovery would be self-financing and offer greater reliability at reasonable cost.
He argued that speculative pricing, whether up or down, was in the long run bad for all those involved in the chain of paper use. Taking old corrugated containers (OCC) as an example, Mr Arages proposed that the price should never be allowed to drop below 35-40 euros per tonne – to his recollection it had never actually fallen below 40 euros. A ceiling should be set no higher than 55/60 euros per tonne, and throughout the range recoverers would have a minimum 30 euros to cover their costs.
Since the EU Directive on packaging recovery in 1992, national collection systems had been introduced all over Europe. In general, paper makers and recoverers had not had sufficient input to this development, even though they were the “top experts”.
“Listen to our advice”
The authorities should “listen to our advice to provide recovery at lower cost,” he insisted. Setting the paper recovery scene in Spain, Mr Arages said that last year 3.8m tonnes had been used, 14% or 560,000 tonnes consisting of imports. The utilisation rate was 81% but the recovery rate was still relatively low at 48.6%.
However, the EU Directive had been a very positive influence, for since 1994 collection had risen by 80% in the context of a voluntary agreement with the government for a “paper bank” system. By the end of 2001 nearly 80,000 of these collection containers would be in place. This separate collection approach delivered lower cost and higher quality without conflicting with the free market, he told delegates.
In Spain, although an optimum had yet to be reached, the cost of paper at collection sites was 34 euros per tonne, which compared with 72 euros for similar operations in France and 204 euros in Germany. The total cost of recovering paper in this way was 60 euros per tonne. But when paper was mixed with other packaging materials in a single container the cost rose substantially to 525 euros per tonne. The problem was to persuade members of the public always to deposit paper in dedicated containers. The message had to be put across much more effectively.
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