Millions of tonnes of collected paper could be landfilled

With recent closures in domestic reprocessing mills and the increasing collections from UK households, it is thought that the 1.86 million tonnes of paper sent abroad for recovery in 2003 has risen to about 2.58 million tonnes in 2004 – accounting for 38% of UK paper recovery.

And, David Symmers of the Independent Waste Paper Processors’ Association said at a seminar yesterday that he believed the level of exports could reach 4 million tonnes within the next 10 years.

But these exports are now being threatened by Environment Agency action, he said.

Speaking at the Stoneleigh Live recycling exhibition yesterday, Mr Symmers said: “We have learned that the Environment Agency is dissatisfied with exports of recovered paper. They have made remarks that there should not be any card in mixed paper – and they are now saying that newspapers and magazines should be separated. Exports will cease if they go down this route.”

“This trend is alarming, and there is no cavalry to help. The ability to use lower grades is in decline, and with the falling mill capacity where is the material going to go?”

David Symmers, IWPPA

“The Environment Agency and government bodies need to decide: do we put it into landfill – and it would be millions of tonnes of material – or do they want to develop the export markets?”

Closure

Increasing local authority collections are generating more and more lower-grade material, he said, but while there is a strong market in the Far East, a lack of investment in the UK has led to the closure of many board-making mills.
The increased use of recycle paper in newsprint by Aylesford Newsprint and Shotton have so far hidden the effects of the mill closures in the board-making sector, he said, but that fortunately the trend towards exports is coinciding with an upward demand in the Far East for recovered paper.

“This trend is alarming, and there is no cavalry to help. The ability to use lower grades is in decline, and with the falling mill capacity where is the material going to go? It has to go to export or to landfill.”

Mr Symmers added that he hoped that there would be constructive talks with the Agency over the role of paper grades, and that this could help remedy the situation.

Mr Symmers said the quality of Chinese papers is too low for them to recycle domestically-produced material, and the Chinese therefore need UK paper.

He noted that other European countries are building more paper-making capacity and will be using their domestic supplies of recovered paper. As a consequence, the Chinese paper industry could be affected by any decline in UK recovered paper.