Israeli company explores new way to use recycled paper

Archiv – What does one normally do with recycled paper and plastic? Usually make more paper and plastic – until now. After 10 years of experimentation, an Israeli recycling company showed off for its country’s President Shimon Peres their newest invention, pipes made of paper fibres and plastic. They are so strong says CEO Avi Brener from the American Israeli Paper Mills Group (AIPM) from Niyar Hadera, they are almost as tough as steel.Israel | What does one normally do with recycled paper and plastic? Usually make more paper and plastic – until now. After 10 years of experimentation, an Israeli recycling company showed off for its country’s President Shimon Peres their newest invention, pipes made of paper fibres and plastic. They are so strong, says CEO Avi Brener from the American Israeli Paper Mills Group (AIPM) from Niyar Hadera, they are almost as tough as steel.
The company’s R&D department discovered what they claim is a unique bonding agent which gives the material the resilience of paper fibres and the flexibility of plastic. The paper company, Israel’s largest supplier and recycler of paper goods, makes the new pipes – called Cycletech – out of 60 percent to 70% recycled paper and plastic. The company uses the pipes themselves as the core for its paper rolls, each of which weighs 20 tons.
The recycling arm of AIPM, named Amnir, recycles 220,000 tonnes per year of paper and plastic: 160,000 tonnes of packing material, 50,000 tonnes of household paper and 6,000 tonnes of plastic. Within a year, they hope to unveil packing materials made from 100% recycled paper. In order to do so, they would have to recycle another 200,000 tons of packing material, which would drive recycling up from 25% to 50%.
However, little of the plastic Israelis use gets recycled. Annual demand for plastic stands at 400,000 tonnes, Brener said, which means just 1.5% is recycled. They hope to increase recycling soon by 3,000 tonnes per year in Israel.
Peres visited the company’s main plant in Hadera as part of a tour he had requested from National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer of the country’s water, electric and recycling industries. Peres and Ben-Eliezer toured the paper mill as well as the Rabin power plant and the site of the desalination plant under construction.
In a corporate first, Life and Environment granted it a Green Globe Award this year for its environmental efforts. Life and Environment is the umbrella organization of environmental organisations in Israel.