CEPI zone sees dip in paper for recycling usage

Europe – The utilisation of paper for recycling will drop 0.7% this year to 47.2 million tonnes across CEPI’s 18 member countries (17 EU states plus Norway), according to the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI). It has released preliminary statistics for 2015 based on the organisation’€™s own data and companies’ financial reports available by mid-November – to coincide with European Paper Week.

These sources indicate that utilisation of paper for recycling will drop 0.7% this year to 47.2 million tonnes across CEPI’s 18 member countries (17 EU states plus Norway). On the upside, this utilisation total is 1% higher than the figure for 2005 despite a drop in paper and board production of 7.6% when compared to a decade ago.

For 2015, paper and board production is expected to be 0.3% lower than last year at 90.8 million tonnes, with increases for packaging paper and board (+2.3% to 44.3 million tonnes) and for sanitary & household paper (+1.5% to 7.1 million tonnes) failing to offset a decline of 4.3% to 35.4 million tonnes in graphic paper output.

Paper and board industry turnover is 2.8% higher than last year in the CEPI zone, according to the preliminary statistics.