Problems of Paper Recycling in Western Europe: Part 7

Using waste paper for energy production provides benefits which should be compared in larger-scale fiber recycling with the energy input necessary for its collection and re-pulping. The interactions between different economic sectors may also introduce problems if the heat value potential of household waste decreases because of waste paper recovery. A conversion of the benefit of using recycled fibers to an equivalent amount of unused oil needs to be considered. Ignoring these considerations will give a distorted view to policy makers and consumers of the costs and benefits of recycling. When considering paper products and the basic wood material, it should be noted that they represent one of the most used renewable material and energy source of the world. An efficient forest management program is necessary, however, to avoid deforestation and corresponding impacts on expected global climate changes. Including new forest areas in a better management program may improve the effects on the fixation of carbon dioxide and the release of methane to the atmosphere.

There are also technical limitations to large-scale recycling. Fibers degenerate each time they are reused, which limits the number of reuse cycles to between three and five. On the other hand, a sizable percentage (20% to 25%) of paper is used for purposes that make recycling impossible or infeasible. Papers belonging to this group are, typically, sanitary papers and food parchment papers, for hygienic reasons, and construction and archive papers from a life-span point of view. Another limitation to using recycled fibers are also the mixture of brown and white, respectively, chemical and mechanical, fibers in the collected waste paper. In addition, different kinds of contaminants in the waste paper mixture are sometimes difficult to remove in the recycling process.