Page 62 from: May 2013
62 May 2013
‘Since the last meeting a year ago, frame-work conditions for the German recov-
ered paper industry have deteriorated signifi-
cantly,’ announced Reinhold Schmidt, vice
president of the Federal Association for Sec-
ondary Raw Materials and Waste Management
(bvse) at its latest congress in Düsseldorf. His
main complaint was that the recently-imple-
mented Closed Substance Cycle Act has ‘unnec-
essarily laced our commercial paper collection
into a tight corset’.
The audience applauded Schmidt’s statement
that this new legislation does more than give
municipalities a larger role in recycling; it
renders them ‘extremely hostile’ competitors to
Germany’s existing recycling players. ‘Many
municipalities are even trying to prevent the
acceptance of recovered paper at our operating
locations – and in many cases, they have already
succeeded,’ he observed.
‘The change in legislation has pushed bvse
members out of the market owing to the now-
dramatic influence of municipalities,’ added
Lars Kossack, managing director of Thüringen
Recycling in Erfurt. Following enforcement of
the Act, he said, there no longer seemed to be
any understanding of the needs of the industry.
Dr Ulrich Höke, managing director of Stora
Enso Sachsen, agreed: ‘Paper recycling has
never been a cause for concern for Germany.
Before the interruption by the counties, it was
a well-organised sector. This goes to show that
outside parties should not be allowed to meddle
so much.’ Germany is essentially taking recy-
cling out of citizens’ hands, claimed Dr Höke.
‘Suddenly, they cannot take their material
where they want; instead, there are all kinds of
obligations and expectations,’ he said.
Cheers of support
These allegations were refuted by Dr Ralf Bleich-
er, councillor of the German County Association
(DLT). ‘It is too soon to reach a final verdict –
only time will tell whether the industry can learn
to live with it or not,’ he said. ‘I really doubt that
the bvse can say how this is going to end.’
‘Actually we can,’ interjected Kossack. ‘We cannot
learn to “live with it”, as you say. Our economy was
built by industry and the strenuous efforts made
by many businesses, not by county representatives
who dictate what should happen although they
know nothing about the market whatsoever.’
Again, cheers of support filled the room.
The required response is ‘evident’, argued
Schmidt, who advocated that the Act ‘must be
corrected urgently and soon’.
‘Fatally wrong’
At the same time, there was plenty of criticism
directed at the paper industry’s efforts to secure
its own supply of raw materials by influencing
the wider movement of goods. Schmidt com-
mented that the paper sector had opted for a
‘fatally wrong’ approach, born out of ‘a glaring
short-sightedness’ as it ‘completely disregards’
the fact that EU recovered paper collection vol-
umes exceed the quantity that can be used in
European paper mills by some 9 million tonnes
per year.
Without the ‘valve function’ of exports, this
‘gigantic permanent paper overhang’ in Europe
would lead to a collapse in paper proceeds, pre-
dicted Schmidt. In turn, this would undermine
investments in separate collection and sorting
systems while discrediting recovered paper
altogether, thus ‘playing into the hands of com-
bustion schemes’.
‘We can rise to the occasion’
According to keynote speaker Wolfgang
Bosbach, a member of the German Bundestag
and representative of the nation’s Christian
Democratic Union, Germans are ‘usually scepti-
cal in the face of innovation – wary more of the
possible risks than the potential success’. How-
ever, he added: ‘We should not be afraid of the
P a P e r r e c y c l i n g By Kirstin Linnenkoper
The paper market has experienced tumultuous times across the
globe, but particularly in Germany where new legislation has meant
that traditional recyclers are now confronted by an army of
‘extremely hostile’ competitors, it was suggested to nearly 600 del-
egates attending the bvse’s 16th International Recovered Paper
Conference in Düsseldorf. However, they were also assured of at
least one ‘reason to rejoice’.
The bvse members have been forced ‘into a tight corset’, urged
Reinhold Schmidt.
A kaleidoscopic view of paper
Battle lines drawn
RI-4_Paper RI BVSE.indd 62 03-05-13 14:17


