The Confederation of Paper Industries reaffirms the UK’s Paper-based Industries’ position that the End of Waste for paper and board occurs at the point of actual recycling, known as the pulping stage.
The position paper, End of Waste Criteria for Paper, is aligned with the views of the Confederation of European Paper Industries (Cepi). The Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) says the UK industry believes that the End of Waste (EoW) occurs at the point of recycling because of the impact on the quality of the material and the economic impact.
The CPI describes Paper for Recycling (PfR) as a “valuable resource”, which is an “integral part” of the circular bio-economy and a major contributor towards a resource-efficient society.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) released the UK’s statistics on waste from 2021 last month (June). For packaging waste, the statistics show that paper and cardboard produced the highest amount of waste at 5.4 million tonnes and achieved a 70.6% recycling rate.
The CPI says that PfR was the “most important” raw material for the UK Paper and Board Industry as around 80% of all paper products made in the UK utilised recovered paper.
The industry firmly believes that there needs to be an improvement in the quality of PfR in the UK.
PfR collected under the current UK collection systems continues to be a mixed material stream even after sorting, the CPI says. To improve the quality and increase the quantity of PfR, the CPI says, the government should progress legislative reforms that ensure paper and board are collected separately from other recyclable materials.
Andrew Large, Director General of CPI, commented: “The industry firmly believes that there needs to be an improvement in the quality of PfR in the UK and that this should be achieved by legislative and policy reforms ensuring that the existing standards are consistently met. This would not be achieved by moving the EoW point.”
Changing the EoW to before pulping would hurt the competitiveness of the UK market, the CPI says, as it would lead to the creation of a two-tier quality system in the UK.
The CPI continues that moving EoW would lead to high-quality material being selected preferentially for export and the alternative would be for UK paper mills to pay higher prices to secure the material otherwise marked for export.
The CPI says this would have a negative economic impact on the UK, lead to a further decline in UK papermaking, further compromise efforts to support the investment required in the UK recycling of paper and could also lead to massive disposal costs.
Recycling Association criticism
Reacting to the CPI, the Recycling Association said it strongly disagrees that EoW begins at the point of recycling.
Recycling Association chief executive Paul Sanderson, commented: “The UK market relies hugely on the export market with UK paper and cardboard mill capacity approximately half of what we consume. Much of that fibre is coming from mills abroad to cover the products we buy that are manufactured in Europe and Asia.
“Putting EoW at the point of recycling means effectively excluding the export market from EoW and means exporters cannot take advantage of low-burden movement of material. Of course, this benefits CPI members and reduces competition.
“EoW for paper and cardboard will mean we have the opportunity to produce the highest circular product standards enabling mills to choose whether to purchase this circular product or continue to buy under existing rules.
EoW for paper and cardboard will mean we have the opportunity to produce the highest circular product standards.
“Some of our European neighbours such as France, Italy and Spain have introduced EoW for paper and cardboard, and there are moves across Europe to introduce it. We should not be left behind in the UK.”
Sanderson also said it was disappointing that the CPI “refuses to accept” principles of free trade and circular product standards when it comes to paper and cardboard. However, Sanderson continued that he’s confident that EoW circular product standards will be introduced in the UK.
“Introducing circular product standards ensures we make paper and cardboard a commodity rather than a waste and will benefit both the mills that will buy it and those that collect and sort it as a commodity grade. It will also reduce the burden on UK environment agencies who will see a commodity being exported allowing for more focus on illegal export by criminal gangs,” Sanderson concluded.
