Paper sector warns against storage of material

Last week the Environment Agency said it would make it easier for regulated companies to store recovered materials for up to six months if they needed to due to the sudden fall in material prices (see letsrecycle.com story) .

However, the Independent Waste Paper Processors Association – which is the independent trade association for paper recyclers – claimed today that increasing storage levels was not the solution for recovered paper and represented a “dangerous direction” for the UK to be moving in.

In particular, it pointed out that low grade recovered paper, especially from households, deteriorates after several months and may then no longer be suitable for use in papermaking.

A statement from the IWPPA explained: “External storage speeds up the deterioration process and can also be a health hazard; internal storage is very expensive in comparison to the value of the material and it is extremely unlikely that these costs will be recovered even if the material can eventually be sold.”

Landfill

As a result, the association warned that the material may end up being incinerated or sent to landfill with the costs of collection, processing and storage having to be written off.

The association added: “Sometimes it is better to take the first loss irrespective of any political fall-out. Maintain the collection system for households but if there is no immediate market for the material take the known cost option and dispose of it to incineration for energy generation or to landfill until the market recovers. Knowing that this was a short-term measure, the householder would prefer this honesty rather than potentially increased rates.”

Suggesting a possible way ahead, the IWPPA said that if it was necessary to maintain the concept of recycling “at any cost”, consideration should be given to increasing the charge paid to service providers to cover the storage costs – making it more economically competitive for paper mill buyers both in the UK and export markets.

And, it added that the government and local authorities needed to examine more closely the “underlying problem” of paper recycling in the UK and start working towards “long-term solutions” – pointing to the facts that the UK currently produces less than half of the paper it consumers and 55% of recovered paper has to be exported, with export demand for low grade paper expected to decline.

The IWPPA estimated that it would cost approximately £1,500 million in investment to take recovered paper exports back under the level of 50% of total UK recovery and that, as this was not going to happen, exports needed to continue and expand.

It said: “Rather than hindering exports the Government needs to be working with the recovered paper industry to encourage and expand these markets, reduce red tape, improve quality standards and create an economic environment in which UK recovered paper can be competitive with other countries in export markets throughout the world.”