Quality concerns as Chinese recovered paper demand grows

Of the total 19 million tonnes of waste paper imported into China, 9.11 million tonnes is expected to be sent by the USA (up 15% on last year) while Europe is expected to see a rise of 12% to a total of 5.13 million tonnes.

” We must not forget quality demands imposed upon us to ensure that Europe can continue to maintain its market share of exports to Asia. “
– Ranjit Baxi, BIR
In a report on the BIR's Paper Round Table in Brussels at the end of October, the organisation's divisional vice-president, Ranjit Baxi of UK-based J&H; Sales International, said that other significant markets emerging for waste paper in Asia included India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and South Korea – had emerged as significant importers.

Quality
But Mr Baxi warned that increases in shipment volumes from Europe have tended to run hand-in-hand with poorer quality.

“We must not forget quality demands imposed upon us to ensure that Europe can continue to maintain its market share of exports to Asia,” he concluded.

Mill closures
Reviewing the recovered paper market conditions in Europe itself, the BIR divisional vice-president Merja Helander of Paperinkerays Oy of Finland pointed to “deep concern” at paper and board industry over-capacity.

She told fellow BIR members of the likelihood of “more mill closures to come and less news of new investment”. Prices of recovered paper had been quite stable over recent months, she added.

The speaker also acknowledged a lack of transport capacity in many countries and severe pressure for freight rate increases.

ERPA
In his final submission to a BIR meeting as President of the European Recovered Paper Association (ERPA), Dr Maarten Kleiweg de Zwaan of FNOI in the Netherlands noted that a new European Declaration had set an “ambitious” 66% recycling rate target for 2010.

Speaking of the revision of EN 643, he said ERPA had established a working group comprised of representatives from various associations whose task was to come up with proposals.

“We are dealing with a global commodity and thus it would be worthwhile to see if we can learn anything from the US scrap specifications as they are far more comprehensive than our current EN 643,” he added.

Also a guest speaker at the Paper Round-Table in Brussels, Dr Thomas Probst of BVSE in Germany spoke of the potential impact on paper recycling of the EU’s REACH chemicals directive. His view was that the proposed legislation would have “a very limited effect” on recovered paper as long as it remained in the “waste” arena rather than moving under the “product” banner.

• A review by the OECD of China's environmental performance has recommended more formal arrangements for the recycling of waste, since the waste sector is fragmented, much of the recycling in China is carried out by informal organisations, and waste management is the “poor cousin” of air and water management when it comes to government funding. China has a landfill rate of just 44%, and an incineration rate of just 3%, but the OECD criticised the country for the amount of material being stored because of limited treatment capacity, while enforcement of industrial waste management is “inadequate”. The OECD welcomed the growing influx of European waste technology into the country.