EPRC: Still More to be Done

Through both market incentives and government programs, scrap paper recovery rates have been climbing in Europe for the past several years.

But according to speakers at the European Paper Recycling Conference, held in Barcelona in late September, there is still more fiber to be harvested by an increasingly savvy recycling industry.

In the keynote session of the second annual event, Bill Moore of Moore & Associates, Atlanta, noted that Chinese paper mills that once relied on North America for 80 percent of their recovered fiber are now tapping into markets throughout the world, including Western Europe.

In 2000, while North America was supplying 80 percent of China’s scrap paper, Europe did not send enough fiber to justify a spot on a pie chart. By 2005, however, Western Europe was supplying 27 percent of a much larger overall volume of scrap paper.

Much of this paper initially came from Germany, according to Henri Vermeulen of Smurfit Kappa Group, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, when that country started its “Green Dot” program that resulted in massive additional flows of collected fiber. “For a lot of years, countries in Europe relied on the German overflow,” Vermeulen remarked.

Other nations have also since dramatically increased collection, including the United Kingdom, which has also seen a reduction in its mill capacity. Subsequently, “Germany lost its position as the key recovered fiber [export] market,” according to Vermeulen.

Increased collection opportunities right now appear to be in Eastern Europe, according to Vermeulen. His company’s projections show collection in that region doubling from 5 million metric tons in 2004 to 10 million metric tons in 2012.

In Spain, both consumption and collection of recovered fiber have been increasing throughout this decade. According to Luis del Molino of Spanish recycling association Repacar, the nation’s consumption of scrap paper has zoomed from 1.2 million metric tons in 1985 to 4.3 million in 2005.

Even with this healthy consuming market and Spain being “a historic 20 percent deficit market,” according to del Molino, recyclers in Spain are receiving numerous offers to export their fiber.

The European Paper Recycling Conference, hosted by the Recycling Today Media Group, took place Sept. 25-26 at the Hotel Tryp Apolo in Barcelona.