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UK paper recycling drops

Tuesday 18 July, 2006

The UK is using less recycled paper than in the past, the latest figures from the Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) have shown.

While 4.6 million tonnes of recovered paper was used in 2004, only 4.5 million tonnes was used last year.

The UK was also revealed to be slightly behind the European average in waste paper collection. Despite 62.4 per cent of waste paper such as used printer paper from office buildings being collected in 2005, in Europe as a whole the figure stood at 62.6 per cent.

Peter Seggie from the CPI has said that even though UK paper manufacturers use a reasonable amount of recycled material to produce paper, more than 50 per cent of paper in the UK is imported.

"This is sustainable as long as there are expanding overseas markets (as currently being experienced in China), but the increasing collection rates of European partners mean they will become strong competitors in the future," Mr Seggie told website letsrecycle.

"Should any issues arise with overseas demand, the UK will be among the first to suffer, because of the low domestic reprocessing level."

With some recycled paper being used to produce the next ream of printer paper, the need for further domestic recycling could become greater should the issues mentioned by Mr Seggie arise.


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