The Current Situation

UK paper reprocessors are seeing some very poor quality recovered paper coming onto the market and are unwilling to take the risk of using this material because of the negative impacts on the paper making process. The majority of recovered paper from single stream (co-mingled) collections is being exported from the UK where a degree of further sorting can take place at low labour costs or the national disposal costs for paper mill rejects are lower. This can be seen as contrary to the requirements of the UK “Duty of Care” legislation for waste producers.

PaperChain has serious doubts as to the long term sustainability of low quality recovered paper, and calls on government and local authorities to take tough decisions now to ensure UK recovery remains a success in the future. There is also a risk that heavily contaminated material may breach EU Waste Shipment Regulations when being exported out of the UK.

PaperChain supports the Campaign for Real Recycling recently launched by the UK’s leading materials reprocessing industries, the community recycling sectors and Friends of the Earth.

Building Sustainability into Paper Recycling | Market Demand | PaperChain's Position