Paper presidents outline new priorities

After going through a very rocky six months, the recovered paper sector is coming out looking particularly healthy

 
Chris White, CPI

Simon Marsden, who was chosen to head-up the Daventry-based organisation – formerly known as the Independent Waste Paper Processors' Association (IWPPA) – at its AGM last month, told letsrecycle.com that he believed that introducing benchmarks for all recovered paper to reach would “negate” the continuing source-separated vs. kerbside collection quality debate.

“What we're looking to do is benchmarking what our members are doing and if we can get to an acceptable standard then those arguments are negated,” Mr Marsden explained, acknowledging that the presence of MRF operators among the association's membership meant that they had a responsibility to consider their position on the issue.

He said that the association's goal was for all its members to be working towards an “acceptable” set of standards for the paper they sorted.

Re-brand

The Association was re-branded from the IWPPA in January 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story) and Mr Marsden, who is also commercial director for Cheshire-based paper merchants Recycling UK Ltd, said that one of his key tasks as president would be to take that re-brand “forward”.

He explained that the next step for the body was a full re-launch of its website, which was a “work in progress”, but should be up-and-running “in a month or so”.

Referring to the reasons behind the re-brand, he said: “We changed the name because most of our members are now handling multi materials; we changed the name to reflect what we do.”

Mr Marsden also identified working health and safety as another “very important” issue, which the association would be working with its members to address.

Commenting on the state of the recovered paper market, he said: “After October which was disastrous for all of us, it had completely over-heated, its working it's way back up, volumes are down which is forcing prices up. It's coming back.

“It's a commodity so it will suffer the vagaries of the market,” he added, before predicting that “2009 is going to be a flat year but it's the same across the board”

CPI

Mr Marsden's sentiments on the market were echoed by Chris White, who was re-elected at the end of March to serve as president of the recovered paper division of the Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) for another 12 months.

“After going through a very rocky six months, the recovered paper sector is coming out looking particularly healthy,” said Mr White, who is also recycling manager at Kent-based paper manufacturer Aylesford Newsprint.

“Price wise we're particularly healthy but we're down on volume and that's obviously a lot of money,” he added.

Quality

Mr White also agreed about the importance of material quality for the sector, claiming that it was a good thing that this was “top of the agenda” for bodies such as WRAP.

And, commenting on his priorities for the year ahead, he said: “The waste strategy is going to get most of my focus this year and just to make sure that it's good for our members. That's going to be my main challenge.”