8 INDUSTRY NEWS
End-of-waste proposal could mean end of recycling: CEPI
fails to address the objectives of increasing the quality and availability of paper for recycling and will have an adverse impact on making Europe a resource- efficient recycling society, says the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI). And to reinforce the message, CEPI organised a demonstration in Brussels outside the EC’s Berlaymont building in September to show how the proposal could dramatically disrupt the recycling of paper in Europe. The proposal comes at a time when paper recycling is at its highest ever level. In 2012, 71.7 per cent of paper consumed in Europe was recycled. Used paper has become the single most important raw material for the European paper industry with some mills being completely reliant on it for their feedstock, says CEPI. The EC proposal threatens Europe’s ability to maintain its recycling rates for paper, let alone improve them, it asserts.
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In its annual monitoring report the European Recovered Paper Council (ERPC) revealed that while paper consumption in Europe has fallen by 13 per cent to the level of 1998, the amount of paper recycled is 1.5 times higher. The proposed End-of-Waste
criteria for paper moves the recycling and EoW point from its current location at the paper mill to an earlier stage in the
September 2013
he European Commission’s proposal on End-of-Waste (EoW) criteria for paper
recycling. The ERPC monitoring report releases extra insights into the wider context of paper recycling revealing that Europe is the global champion in this field. Furthermore, the ERPC reports that in Europe paper fibre is recycled an astounding 3.5 times a year; world-wide the average is 2.4 times.
“This is ‘recycled paper’, according to the EC. CEPI challenges anyone to use it in their printer or to draft a legislative proposal on it,” said Jori Ringman, CEPI Recycling and Environment Director.
collection. As a result of this move ‘recycled paper’ will be unusable without further reprocessing. “The Commission cannot demonstrate any environmental benefit for doing this,” said CEPI in a statement. “As a result the European paper industry fears the new legislation risks a lower quality of paper for recycling and poses a threat to current high levels of paper recycling. In fact, as the Waste Shipment Regulation would no longer apply, environmental impact will be negative. “The amount of impurities in the output of end-of-waste would be 15,000 times higher than they are at this moment. Annually this will mean one million tonnes of impurities such as plastic bags
allowed by the Commission in Europe. In addition, used paper that is no longer waste, shipped to countries outside of Europe would no longer be subject to equivalent environmental standards in the manufacture of paper products.” Jori Ringman, Recycling and
Environment Director at CEPI commented: “With this proposal, the European Commission will be exporting pollution to the poor and importing unemployment to Europe. “It all works against the idea of the EU becoming a resource efficient recycling society as well as against the reindustrialisation of Europe.”
• Since 2000 the ERPC has worked on improving the quantity and quality of paper available for
• The number of European countries with a recycling rate below 60 per cent has decreased, whereas there are 13 countries where paper recycling rates exceed 70 per cent. To increase paper recycling especially in Central Europe, a number of ERPC members are partners in EU funded projects working to improve collection systems in that region.
• Commenting on the results of the report, ERPC Secretary Jori Ringman-Beck, said “The European paper value chain devotes huge efforts year after year to simplify paper recycling for citizens and consumers in offices and at home. The figures in the report prove that paper recycling is truly an industry ‘made in Europe’. And in line with EU policies it needs to be safeguarded to remain so.” • In addition, the ERPC will award innovative technology developments and information campaigns in paper recycling at the European Paper Recycling Awards, which takes place on 2 October in the European Parliament. To view the Commission
proposal for end-of-waste go to
http://eur-lex.europa. eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ. do?uri=COM:2013:0502:FIN:EN:PDF
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