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Recent Growth According to InfoTrends’ latest research, the Western European market for paper with recycled content continues to grow. This market experienced rapid growth from 2006 to 2007, rising by 48,000 tonnes, and grew another 11% in 2007. This upsurge in growth follows a more gradual development period of consumption in the early 2000s. Increased Focus on Environmental Directives and/or Legislation The EU is of course very much involved in setting targets for recovered paper recycling (i.e., the percentage of paper and board products used that are recycled) in Europe, and since 2000 has set targets under the European Declaration on Paper Recovery. The recovered paper recycling rate is measured by taking the volume of recovered paper as a proportion of the total consumption of paper and board. The European Recovered Paper Council (ERPC) is the body tasked with monitoring the progress, to facilitate the industry, to meet the targets, and to report the outcomes. There are a whole host of paper-related associations and organisation that are signatories to the Declaration. Recycling rate targets were set for 2005 that were achieved within the 1.5% margin of the goal of 56%. A new goal has now been set for 2010 of 66%. In addition, the Declaration also requires that further measures to improve the environmental performance of the industry are taken. The use of recovered paper varies considerably in the different sectors of the industry, and InfoTrends calculates from CEPI (Confederation of European Paper Industries) data that recovered paper usage in the “other graphic papers” segment totalled 3.9 million tonnes in 2007, with a total production level of 35.7 million tonnes. This translates into an 11% utilisation rate (recovered paper usage divided by total paper production in that sector). This segment of the paper industry does require more investment in technology to improve the standard, quantity, and quality of waste collected as well as other technical factors to improve the utilisation rate. Whilst the EU Declaration is not specific about the utilisation or recycling rates in specific paper industry sectors, it is likely that more and more attention will be focused on the graphic papers segment to invest in research and technology to improve the recycling rate. These will be powerful drivers of consumption as a knock-on effect to greater supply of quality recycled paper into the market. For example, the U.K. government-backed WRAP organisation has a mission to find ways to get greater recycled paper content into magazine grades of paper. As a result of the above directives and other environmental awareness campaigns, there has been a bigger push from local and national governments, with many countries setting legislation to ensure a certain level of waste is salvaged. We are witnessing more and more companies incorporating environmental responsibility into their corporate strategies. This report does not attempt to outline these strategies, as there are many, but recovered paper utilisation is increasingly high on the agenda for most member states. The preceding is an excerpt from a report entitled Western European Recycled Business Cut Size Paper Market Size & Forecast. To learn more about this report, visit our online store or contact Robyn Wuori at ext. 103 or via e-mail at . |
