WRAP’s decision to opt for the Shotton Paper Company, which is part of UPM-Kymmene Paper Industry, instead of Aylesford Newsprint to increase used newspaper reprocessing capacity in the UK has caused considerable surprise within the waste paper sector.
It now means that Shotton will enter pre-contract talks with WRAP to receive a grant worth 20-30 million towards the redevelopment of its Deeside plant to increase the amount of recovered newspaper and magazines it uses to make newsprint. For WRAP – the Waste and Resources Action Programme – the development is also being seen as a big internal challenge, for it has to ensure delivery of its most high profile target – to raise UK newspaper and magazine recycling by 321,000 tonnes by 2004.
The surprise comes because Aylesford has long held aspirations and detailed plans for another paper machine that would run entirely on collected newspapers and magazines. In the end it seems as though delays over the years in securing government support for the plant, a cyclical downturn in the newsprint market and a lack of flexibility in timing of the plant under WRAP’s plan were the death knell for the machine, at least in the foreseeable future – and subject to any more change of heart by the parties involved.
Some in the recovered paper sector felt that the WRAP competition, which was run to select which project should receive the grant, was almost written with Aylesford’s plan in mind. But, the vigour of the competition dispelled most of these fears and there was a general welcome for the decision last year to select Aylesford’s project as “preferred bidder”.
Surprise
David Symmers, chief executive of the Independent Waste Paper Processors Association said he was surprised at the news. “It is the case that with the choice of Aylesford the industry saw both recycling and Great Britain plc winning. We had a new machine and more material would be recycled.”
However, opting for Shotton means, he said, that recyclers will be in a similar position as with Aylesford but that the UK will not have a new paper machine, which would have been the first since 1995.
Difference
Another senior recovered paper industry figure told letsrecycle that the difference between the two projects is that “one is new capacity and the other is a relatively small amount of new capacity and more a change of furnish. The industry was pleased that the government was giving it support. With Aylesford it was pleased with the increase in recycling and the reduction in imports.”
One of the UK’s largest recyclers said that the decision was “not good for WRAP. This is their first major project and it was always going to be difficult in the current market. I wonder whether even Shotton will have cold feet because of the weaker demand for newsprint.”
While neither WRAP nor Aylesford have categorically stated the reasons for the decision to switch to Shotton, it is clear that two core issues were at stake. One was whether Aylesford under the WRAP terms could offer a firm commitment to build the new paper machine, and the second was timing.
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