Problems of Paper Recycling in Western Europe: Part 1

To date, approximately 30% of fibers are recycled worldwide, with some countries reaching 50%. In the 1980s, the use of recycled fibers increased rapidly. In 1986 the overall waste paper use (raw material input per product output) in Western Europe was only about 35%, which corresponded to about 30% furnish share in the pulp mixture. Global use at the end of the 1980s was approximately 75 million tones of recycled fiber per year, and it has been estimated that by the year 2000 this could increase to 130 million tones per year.

The reasons for the low share of waste paper use in 1986 are obvious. The quality of the paper made from recycled fibers was often considered insufficient for newsprint and other printing paper uses. However, about half of the total paper and board produced in Western Europe in 1986 was for these uses. As mentioned earlier, in 1986 less than 30% of the total fibers used in newsprint were recycled fibers. In addition, recycled fibers were hardly used at all in high-quality wood-free grades. On average, waste paper raw material input was used in less than 10% of all printing paper. The average raw material furnish in Central Europe was about 12%; Scandinavian production, which represented about 40% of the total Western European supply, was firmly based on primary fiber. Thus, paper recycling in Western Europe could best be characterized as typically limited to one reuse cycle of high-grade waste paper to lower-quality papers.