Recycling Association and trading chief retires

Mr Symmers' colleague Simon Ellin is to take on the position of chief executive of IWPP and a new head of the association is to be appointed in the New Year.

 

As the Independent Waste Paper Processors Association we fought hard for our members' interests including the rights of smaller and medium sized businesses

 
David Symmers 

Thanking Mr Symmers for his “immense” contribution to the success of the trading company and the association, president Simon Marsden of Recycling UK Ltd, said: “Basically, everyone knows David has been an institution within the IWPP and the Recycling Association and he has brought us forward in huge ways to the strong point we are at now. He will be sorely missed by our members and the staff at the Daventry office.”

Looking ahead, Mr Marsden said the association would now split the chief executive roles with Simon Ellin taking on the trading work and a new appointment to be made to the trade association role. He added: “We are keen to develop the trade association and will be expanding our work in plastics and other materials as well as concentrating on the paper sector. By making a separate appointment this will give us more strength on the association side to promote issues such as health and safety and to carry out more lobbying on the government side.”

Mr Symmers joined the association in 1989 when it was operating as Independent Waste Paper Producers Ltd, a trading body for the merchant sector.

Prior to this he had experience of working with some of the larger firms in the sector having started with Maybanks in 1973, the largest recovered paper merchant in the UK at that time and a subsidiary of Reed International. After a management buy-out and a subsequent acquisition, this now trades as SCA Recycling.

Trading

Mr Symmers later worked for Fort Sterling and was to join Severnside Recycling as commercial director in 1987 for two years before taking on the independent trading company role.

Mr Symmers recalls that the Recycling Association – then known as the Independent Waste Paper Processors Association – was originally formed as a trading body in 1975 but then the Board of Trade stepped in. “They decreed that a trading association could not trade so we formed waste paper producers as a trading company to provide a counterbalance to the mill-owned merchants. For years that was the raison d'etre and the association did very little.”

In recent times, he explained, the trading company has continued its activities while the association has gone from strength to strength.

“As the Independent Waste Paper Processors Association we fought hard for our members' interests including the rights of smaller and medium sized businesses. We were largely responsible for allowing mills overseas to issue export PRNs on packaging grades sent for reprocessing. If we hadn't stepped in, it might have just been the UK mills which could have issued them.”

Mr Symmers said that he believed the polarisation between UK mills and export merchants has softened. “The mills are not as strong as they were. 15-20 years ago some 90% of material went into the UK mills. But, in 1995 there was big export boom and in 2000 demand from the Chinese market really started to strengthen.”

Looking ahead, he points to the globalisation of recovered paper trading. “This is not a bad thing – you have to have proper markets and the UK mills cannot hide from the marketplace. There was nervousness among UK merchants about how reliable the export markets are but they have taken everything presented to them, apart from a few months at the start of the recession.”

Domestic mills

UK mills are important too, said Mr Symmers, who emphasised that domestic mills are a key part of industry. And, he pointed to the forthcoming SAICA mill in Trafford which will add to demand. “It will be interesting to see where SAICA get their material from as it is not as though there is a surplus tonnage at present. They are likely to want OCC (used cardboard) and hard mix so the only way to obtain this is by the diversion of material from other outlets.”

Mr Symmers said he will still be involved in the sector although on a less-time heavy basis and will be keeping an eye on European developments where he has played an important role. He headed up the European Recovered Paper Association team working on the revision of the EN643 grade list and also for the paper board of BIR.