European Paper Recycling Council presents two awards

The European Paper Recycling Council (EPRC), Brussels, hosted the seventh edition of the European Paper Recycling Awards the evening of Jan. 21 at the European Parliament in Brussels. Both Repulping Technology GmbH & Co. KG, Schiltberg, Germany, and Pro Carton, an international association based in Switzerland, received awards from EPRC. 

According to a news release from EPRC, the European Paper Recycling Awards ceremony takes place every two years to highlight and reward European projects, initiatives and campaigns that change the way paper is recycled in Europe and help Europe to achieve its goal of a 74 percent paper recycling rate by 2020. EPRC was set up as an industry group in November 2000 to monitor progress toward meeting the paper recycling targets set in the 2000 European Declaration on Paper Recycling.

The ceremony honors winners who have presented excellent projects in two categories: “Innovative Technologies and R&D” and “Information & Education.” 

Repulping Technology received the award for the Innovative Technologies and R&D category from EPRC for some of its technological developments. According to a news release from EPRC on the awards, Repulping Technology invented the cavitation pulper that makes the extraction of pulp fibers for recycling from products mixing papers and other material a lot easier and more energy-efficient. The cavitation pulper exploits the physical principle of cavitation and allows for an almost 100 percent recovery of the fibers from these products with an energy efficiency that is about 50 percent better than other technologies. 

Pro Carton received the award for the Information & Education category from EPRC for its educational work about paper recycling and its circular economy. Pro Carton set up a European-wide educational program aimed at children from ages 8-to-11 years old called Trees into Cartons, Cartons into Trees (TICCIT). The program allows businesses across the paper value chain to explain in schools the benefits of recycling. The program reports a high degree of appreciation among the children, who also inform their families of the insights in the program. 

During the ceremony, Ulrich Leberle, secretary of EPRC and raw materials director for the Confederation of European Paper Industries, presented the findings of the EPRC Monitoring Report 2018. He said, “The Monitoring Report confirms that paper recycling in Europe continues to be on the right path and on the rise, reaching the level of 71.6 percent in 2018, even if the latest data shows a slight decline due to Chinese restrictions of import.”