Paper market intervention suggested as WRAP seeks opinions

WRAP sees intervention as one of five possible ways in which it could help drive up recycling rates for paper and, in a consultation paper issued today, says that hedging funds are an example of one financial mechanism that could be used “to assist in price stabilisation”.

It also suggests that there should be measures to increase newsprint reprocessing in the UK against a background of insufficent UK based reprocessing capacity at the present.

Barriers
Looking at some of the main barriers to increased paper recycling, WRAP says: “The three existing mills are fully supplied and there is little opportunity for increased news/pams recycling without investment in new capacity to absorb increased supply and reduce UK dependence on imported newsprint.”

And, in what could be seen as a reference to the current debate concerning a new paper machine at Aylesford, it says that new capacity is a complex investment decision “strongly influenced by other developments in the European and wider market, including new plant capacity elsewhere”.

WRAP notes that large amounts of paper still go to landfill, especially from local authority household collections (see table below) and much greater levels of kerbside recycling are needed to capture this material.

WRAP has to produce a business plan in the spring and is approaching this on a wide consultative basis. It is asking for comments and input from all parties to its suggestions for increasing paper recycling.

The other actions which it proposes and is consulting on are:
– a programme to deliver higher levels of recycled paper usage in the graphics, printings and writings sectors, including working with printers, corporate and public users to establish circumstances under which they would use recycled paper.
– Financial incentives to encourage recycled paper purchase such as differential VAT rates
– To commission analysis of fibre requirements across all parts of the paper industry
– to identify points in the fibre supply chain where signficant increases in recovered fibres could be introduced and identify technical, economic and logistical barriers that currently exist.

Comments on the paper consultation document are invited by February 16 and should be sent to Ray Georgeson, policy director, WRAP, 8th Floor, 43 Marsham Street, London SW1P 3PY, tel: 020 7944 8861, fax: 020 7944 8864, email: WRAP policy

Further details are also available at the WRAP website.