Hungry paper mills around the world will continue to buy bales of shredded paper, but if sellers want the best price they’ll need to find the right mill.
A panel discussion at the NAID (National Association for Information Destruction) Annual Conference, which took place in Phoenix in mid-May, featured comments from four brokers and buyers of scrap paper, all of whom agreed that shredded office paper has grown tremendously as pulping material in the past five years.
But the growth has included some problems along the way, including more and smaller contaminants that can cause headaches for mills and a lack of uniformity in mill specifications.
Even though uniform specifications might make paper trading easier, it may not be a realistic system for mills that have widely different pulping and screening equipment.
“Find the right mill partner; that leads to added value,” said panel member Crawford Carpenter of The Newark Group, Cranford, N.J.
Broker Joe Jurden of Cook Paper Recycling, Kansas City, Mo., told attendees that different mills will have different tolerances for contamination and will pay different premiums for clean material.
Marc Forman of Harmon Associates, Jericho, N.Y., also urged attendees to “know and understand the mill you’re shipping to; know its capabilities and limitations.”
Forman added that Harmon Associates has been taking measures to reward shredding firms and recyclers who make the effort to produce cleaner, whiter bales of shredded paper with a premium price.
While the size of the shreds can be a limiting factor for some mills, a consideration across the board for mills is the purchase of bales that are solid enough to be handled by forklifts and to make the journey via rail or truck. “Produce a bale with great integrity,” said Jurden. “Poor bale integrity will get you in trouble [with the mill],” he added.
Sufficient communication between secure shredders, recyclers, brokers and mill buyers can help document destruction companies receive the best possible price for their paper bales by matching the bale with a mill that is prepared to deal with the level of contamination and color variation found within. Panel members agreed that the overall demand for baled shredded paper has been growing and will continue to grow.
Carpenter estimates that 90 percent of the office paper handled by the company’s recycling plants is now shredded paper, and that the company has seen a 300 percent increase over the past five years in the amount of shredded paper that it handles.
Forman remarked that the Georgia-Pacific Savannah, Ga., mill furnished by Harmon Associates has probably seen its office paper ratio shift from 90 percent sheet/10 percent shredded five years ago to almost the exact opposite today.
Regarding the future, Forman predicted that global demand will keep markets active. “There is going to be no problem moving your paper in the next five to 10 years,” he stated.
The NAID Conference was held at the Arizona Biltmore Resort in Phoenix and was attended by more than 850 information destruction professionals and their suppliers.