The BIR World Recycling Convention Week was hosted online by the Brussels-based organization Oct. 12-16.

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The global recovered paper market has been undergoing a transformation this year as China has reduced its imports of recovered paper and recyclers search for new outlets for that commodity, speakers during the Bureau of International Recycling’s (BIR’s) Paper Division panel shared Oct. 14 during the association’s World Recycling Convention Week. The panel was moderated by Sébastien Ricard of France-based Paprec, and panel participants provided a status report on the market’s supply-and-demand balance as well as insights into technical innovations that could provide a boost to recovered paper markets globally.
BIR’s Past President Ranjit Singh Baxi of U.K.-based J&H Sales International shared that China’s annual overseas purchases of recovered fiber have dwindled from between 26 million and 29 million metric tons per year in 2017 to 2020's projection of just 5 million metric tons. He said China imported 19 million metric tons of recovered fiber in 2018 and 11 million metric tons in 2011.
However, Baxi said, he thinks the staged reduction in China’s imports of recovered paper have been beneficial to the recycling sector. “It has allowed the industry to try to reposition itself in newer markets, finding newer outlets.”
BIR Paper Division President Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, also of Paprec, said he has noticed that new markets have stepped in to offset the loss of orders from China. He referenced new capacity for recovered paper consumption in Europe as well as through fiber exports being dispatched to a wider range of countries and in larger quantities.
Speakers noted that Turkey remains a promising market, despite its recent decision to limit paper recyclers’ recovered paper imports to a maximum of 50 percent of their production capacity as compared with 80 percent previously. Baxi said he thinks other countries will adopt similar measures to protect domestic industries and collection programs and to reduce import expenses.
BIR Divisional Vice President Francisco Donoso of Spain-based Alba Servicios Verdes said the steep reduction in Chinese recovered paper orders has been having a significant negative impact on business. He said the industry also is struggling with recovered paper price volatility, attributing this to “panic” among some mills afraid of running out of material or of paying more money than necessary for supplies.
BIR Divisional Vice President Martin Leander of Sweden-based Stena Metall International AB said he has also noticed price volatility for recovered paper. However, he said, he is excited about the opportunities opening up to consume recovered paper scrap.
Additionally, Gilles Lénon, managing director of the Centre Technique du Papier (CTP) in France, and Fabienne Vercelli, CTP’s director of customer relations, outlined research aimed at developing new market outlets for recovered paper. They discussed emerging technologies with potential for the packaging sector, including chromatogeny, which involves the chemical modification of a cellulosic compound to create a water-repellent barrier, and MFC wet lamination, where a layer of microfibrillated cellulose is applied to a paper or board surface to act as a barrier against oil, contaminants and oxygen.
Using the paper cup market as an example, Vercelli said both technologies “were able to reach all specifications in terms of recyclability and biodegradability.” She said CTP has been working closely with papermakers on these technologies and confirmed that a chromatogeny-based machine already has been built and that a second machine is under discussion.
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