The pulp & paper industry has long been seen as one of the most polluting industries on the planet. It is no longer the case, but to continue growing and also to reduce their ecological footprint, the sector is looking for new solutions from partners such as Veolia.
From mixed waste paper to unsold remainders of newspapers, magazines and books, office paper and other graphic paper to 'running meters of files' and used paper and cardboard packaging - these different types of waste are collected by Veolia for commercial and industrial customers, municipalities and end consumers, processed for further use and thus returned to the cycle.
The challenge as we see it
Due to changing framework conditions and intense competition, the circular paper economy is constantly being asked to look for better solutions. For example, since 2013 the revised EN 643 has stipulated higher quality standards, which, for example, specify low tolerances for non-paper parts in the processed bales of recyclable material. But the proportion of paper that is not suitable for recycling is also increasing. For marketing reasons, packaging is increasingly being 'upgraded' with coatings, stickers or lamination and can therefore no longer be recycled in the paper cycle, or can only be recycled with considerable additional effort. Cross-linking printing inks, for example, can hardly be removed from paper fibres. This leads to, that the recyclability or utility value of the recovered materials is increasingly suffering. In order to counteract this trend, increasingly complex sorting and processing technologies as well as coordination processes between the producers, users and sorters are necessary in order to obtain the desired qualities. Veolia is therefore developing its own programs in cooperation with industry. In order to develop sustainable products, paper producers, recycling companies and printers should ideally agree on standards and agree on a common product strategy that goes in the direction of eco-design.
Our solutions