The UK's recycled paper industry has defended its integrity in the wake of confessions from Japanese paper mills that they lied about the recycled content of their products.
There is no shortage of recovered fibre in the UK market – indeed, over 50% is currently exported – and as such, UK Mills have no reason to overstate the percentage of recovered fibres their product contains
CPI spokeswoman
The Confederation of Paper Industries has moved to reassure customers by stating it is confident that UK recycled paper statistics are accurate and the data is robust.
It made a statement following revelations in the UK and Japanese media that products from five paper mills – Nippon Paper, Oji Paper, Daio Paper, Mitsubishi Paper Mills and Hokuetsu Paper Mills – had a smaller quantity of recycled material than they advertised.
Oji Paper is said to have claimed its copy and printing paper had a recycled content of 50%, when it was actually between 5-10%.
And Nippon Paper boasted of 100% recycled copy paper when in reality, the figure is believed to be closer to 50%.
Nippon Paper's president Masatomo Nakamura told journalists at a press conference last week, he was prepared to resign over the scandal because the company had breached public trust.
At the same briefing, he admitted Nippon's recycled content figures had been falsified for about 10 years, dating from when he was a mill manager at the firm.
The government's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry launched an investigation along with the Environment Ministry, after learning that New Year's cards supplied to Japan Post Holdings – the country's postal service – contained less paper than specified under contract.
A Japanese newspaper reports that investigations are now underway into all companies and all products in Japan claiming to have a recycled content.
The article added: “The scandal has reached even government level, partly because Japan Post is still publicly owned – the privatization process has just started – and partly because Japan was rocked by many similar fake scandals last year, mainly in food related products.”
The Fair Trade Commission will investigate if the paper mills should be taken to task for “violating the truth” in advertising law.
CPI
The Confederation of Paper Industries has said it is sure a similar situation is not occuring in the UK. It said waste paper data tends to be in line with independent audits, as well as with government figures, such as those in the Packaging Waste Regulations Declarations – although these have been shown to be incorrect in recent years.
A spokeswoman added: “There is no shortage of recovered fibre in the UK market – indeed, over 50% is currently exported – and as such, UK Mills have no reason to overstate the percentage of recovered fibres their product contains.”
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) – the government agency responsible for building the market for recycled material – was unable to comment on levels of recycled content in UK paper products.
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