New record of 74.5% recovered paper use in Germany

Germany – In 2016, Germany used almost 17 million tonnes of recovered paper in producing a total of 22.6 million tonnes of paper and cardboard. This represented a 1.2% increase over 2015, it was revealed by bvse’s vice president Werner Steingaß at the organisation’s annual recovered paper conference last week.

Germany achieved a ‘record’ 74.5% recovered paper utilisation last year. The country was able to meet demand for material by importing a ‘significant’ 4.4 million tonnes from various other EU countries – 7.6% more than was imported in 2015, according to Steingaß.

‘The fact is that, in Europe, more waste paper is collected than the paper factories need for their production,’ he added. ‘As long as this is the case, exports remain the indispensable basis for a successful recycling industry for paper.’

Commenting on the business climate in Germany, Steingaß explained to delegates that ‘the big players are constantly getter bigger, and the medium-sized companies are getting smaller and smaller’.

Whereas the recycling sector could be described once again as ‘stable’ last year, it was noted that the paper recycling workforce shrunk somewhat, to just short of 40 000 people. It was also revealed that sales of graphic paper were down 3.6% last year while packaging and hygiene papers saw respective increases of 1.8% and 3.2%.

The full report of the bvse recovered paper conference will be featured in Issue #3 of Recycling International.