In its ‘Paper Recycling Monitoring Report 2012’, the European Recovered Paper Council reports that the recycling rate for paper in Europe reached 71.7% for the year 2012.
In the introduction to the report, ERPC describes the achievement as “remarkable”, given that since the pre-crisis peak year of 2007, paper consumption in Europe has dropped by 13% whereas recycling decreased by only 3.5%.
The total amount of paper collected and recycled in the paper sector in Europe is said to be remaining stable at just under 58 million tonnes.
The current paper consumption is at the level of 1998 but the recycled amount is 1.5 times higher than in 1998 – before the industry made its first voluntary commitment set in the European Declaration on Paper Recycling “It is clear that the rate is starting to level out and keeping it at a high rate is becoming challenging,” ERPC says.
“It is not only the quantities in consumption that are changing but also the patterns: the sharp decline in newspaper consumption will affect the overall paper recycling levels as newspapers are traditionally one of the best recycled paper products along with corrugated boxes.”
A net volume of 9.4 million tonnes (or 16%) of the total 58 million tonnes was imported from Europe for recycling by third countries outside the commitment region of EU-27 plus Norway and Switzerland.
The ERPC report also points to a reduction in the number of European countries not achieving a 60% recycling rate from 12 to 10, whereas the number of countries exceeding a 70% recycling rate remains at 13.
“The number of times a paper fibre is collected and recycled reaches, on average, 3.5 – compared to 3.4 in 2011 and the world-wide average of 2.4, based on a calculation method developed in France,” the Brussels-based organisation says.
