Paper mill points to option of importing material

Speaking at yesterday's WRAP Symposium on materials recycling facilities (MRFs) in London, Aylesford Newsprint hinted at the possibility of buying in recovered paper from overseas to maintain quality standards.

Aylesford Newsprint is hinting at importing recovered paper if UK MRFs cannot sort paper from commingled material well enough

Alan McKendrick, chief executive at Aylesford Newsprint told an industry audience that at the moment the UK is “not in position to get quality out of MRFs and we may need to directly import from other countries who are doing it better.”

The Kent-based company, which supplies a third of the UK's newsprint – described the paper industry in the UK as “the most dynamic in world”. But, Mr McKendrick said this position was “based on supplies of quality material coming into the presses.”

Although 90% of Aylesford's incoming material is source-separated at the kerbside and the quality is “generally clean and fresh”, McKendrick revealed that 10% of the mill's paper comes from MRFs.

He described MRF-sorted paper as “dirty and damp and contains at least 5-9% contamination”.

Glass
The main contaminants Aylesford have to deal with are food waste, dirt, broken glass, plastic bits and glue. McKendrick explained that they “only have technology to remove bulk items”, not fines such as broken glass since the main investment in the industry is focussed on &#39de;-inking' paper rather than sorting it.

The Aylesford Newsprint chief executive said demand from publishers for recovered newsprint is currently high, and that advertisers are putting on the pressure to use high quality recycled paper. The company has agreed with publishers to aim for a target of 70% recycled content in its newsprint, and reached an 80% level in 2005.

However, Mr McKendrick concluded by warning: “If we don’t look after our primary raw material we'll have big problems.”

Also speaking at the MRF Symposium yesterday, Northern Irish community recycling group Bryson Recycling poured scorn on MRFs that take glass.

Its director Eric Randall said: “I cannot see how adding glass to a commingled mix will help. The quality of the glass is trashed if it is mixed, and it can only go down one route where you lose the inherent carbon value.

“And, it leaves the quality of the paper at risk,” he said.

Bryson Recycling, which has been running a small MRF for the past 12 months at Mallusk to service a commingled contract with the arc21 group of local authorities, advised against adding too much complexity to MRFs.

Mr Randall said local authorities should not believe that switching to commingled collections is an easy way towards higher recycling rates.

Fortnightly
He said a move to fortnightly residual waste collections would be much more effective in boosting recycling participation, and revealed experiences of “20% rises almost overnight”.

But – the advice came with a major downside. Mr Randall said: “Alternate weekly collection really does put pressure on quality of material. If it is not properly managed, we have dealt with local authorities giving in waste with 25% contamination.”