European Recovered Paper Council announces award winners

The Brussels-based European Recovered Paper Council (ERPC) has announced the winners of its fifth European Paper Recycling awards. The ceremony took place at the European Parliament and was hosted by MEP (Member of European Parliament) Eva Kaili who is also head of the Greek S&D (Socialists and Democrats) delegation.

The winner of the Technology Improvement and R&D category was Aalto University and VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) with a new, innovative process for turning paper for recycling and cardboard into textile fibres called Ioncell-F.

ERPC found the process submitted by Aalto University and VTT to be innovative in two ways: First, it allows for the production of fibres of quality equal or better than those derived from similar processes. Their high strength also renders the fibres suitable as natural reinforcement in composite materials, ERPC says. Secondly, the process makes it possible to use lignin as a natural textile dye.

The Ioncell-F process is based on the use of a so-called ionic liquid to dissolve cellulosic waste material without the addition of toxic chemicals and spin fibres for the production of textiles and garments.

“We're happy to see this environmentally-friendly process already attracting considerable interest, even though it is still in a developmental phase”, says Michael Hummel, postdoctoral researcher at Aalto University.

The winner of the Information and Education category was the Literatura za Makulature (Literature for Paper for Recycling) project, submitted by a primary school in the Tychy region of Poland. In order to encourage children to get involved in paper recycling, the school invited famous Polish authors to meet its pupils, paying for their participation with money raised from selling the paper for recycling brought to school by the children. The initiative is unique not only in Tychy but in Poland, ERPC says.

In his speech ERPC Chairman Henri Vermeulen stressed the role of the recycling awards. “It is our pleasure to highlight and reward innovative paper recycling projects coming from education institutions. Initiatives like these prove that the paper industry is already the perfect example of a circular economy,” he added.

Five more entries were commended by the jury:

• Ecofolio for their project “The Modulated Eco-Contribution Scale”;
• Papierenkarton.nlz o.o. for their “Papier & Karton Educational Programme” (Information and Education category);
• PTS Papiertechnische Stiftung for "Advanced treatment of recycled pulp by use of hydrodynamic cavitation pulses";
• Alucha & SCA Hygiene Products for ‘REFILLS (Recovering of Energy and FILLers from Sludge)’ a
• Kadant International for ‘Polycup recycling at James Cropper speciality papers’ (Technology Improvement and R&D category).

The next edition of the ERPC recycling awards will be organised in 2017.