PPRCE 2018: E-commerce’s effect on recycling

Pictured above, from left: Jochen Behr of DS Smith,

Bill Moore of Moore & Associates and Michael Schneider of Remondis

Jochen Behr, head of recycling at DS Smith, headquartered in London, said e-commerce has not changed the recycling industry as much as it has changed brick-and-mortar retailers, but he cautioned that the changes are “probably coming.” 

Behr was one of the speakers that addressed attendees of the 2018 Paper & Plastics Recycling Conference Europe session Special Delivery: The Amazon Effect. The conference was Nov. 6-7 in Prague.

He said packaging innovations have been more disruptive to the recycling industry so far than changing reading and shopping patterns. Behr added that some innovation in this sector has been great, while others have been much less so for the recycling sector.

The rise of e-commerce has had the greatest effect on the first mile of recycling, which is how the material is effectively collected, Behr said. These efforts could take the form of at home collection boxes, driver collection schemes, additional drop-off centers, the use of Amazon lockers as collection points and Amazon rewards for returning packaging, he said.

Conversations around packaging recycling are about balancing different needs, Behr said. These include design for recycling, messages and systems to maximize collection and the need for high-quality recyclables.

“It is an exciting time for us as an industry to make progress in all areas,” Behr said.

Michael Schneider, marketing and communications for Remondis, headquartered in Germany, agreed on the need to keep recycling in mind when packaging is being designed. “If we want to increase recycling, it has to start with designing packages for recycling.”

He said the rise of e-commerce has led to changes in the composition of recovered paper. Graphic papers have decreased by 4 percent, while old corrugated containers (OCC) have increased by 2.5 percent. 

In 2017, Schneider said the German paper industry produced almost 19 percent less graphic paper than in 2010. During that same period, however, demand for packaging paper increased considerably.

He added that it would be difficult to extract acceptable amounts of quality deinking material with household collection of paper. Material recovery facilities (MRFs) will need to adapt their sorting capabilities to respond to the changing paper stream, investing between 500,000 and 2 million euros to boost sorting capabilities.

Johan Boons, general manager of Sha International BVBA, Belgium, said the rise of e-commerce has increased packaging demand and necessitating the collection of more paper for recycling. Additionally, more paper making capacity is needed, he said, noting that Germany will be adding paper making machines to produce an additional 2.5 million metric tons.

With the growth in e-commerce, Boons said the need for white top linerboard on boxes has decreased, as has demand for duplex packaging.

Moderator Bill Moore of Moore & Associates, which is in Atlanta in the USA, said 50 percent of e-commerce boxes generated in the U.S. are being lost to disposal. Schneider said he suspected the figure is similar for Germany.

He added that German recyclers need to invest in better sorting and education to respond to the changing packaging recycling regulations that go into effect in 2019. “If we don’t invest seriously in better sorting and education, we won’t be able to recover the volume or quality we need,” Schneider said. 

The 2019 Paper & Plastics Recycling Conference will be in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 5-6.