Credit: pjhpix/Shutterstock
A recycled paper mill operator and packaging producer will be purchased by WestRock for $3.5 billion.
Credit: pjhpix/Shutterstock
A recycled paper mill operator and packaging producer will be purchased by WestRock for $3.5 billion.
Recyclables exported out of the U.S. are moving to Southeast Asia, where reclaimers and mills are dramatically increasing purchases as China closes its doors to recovered materials. New figures illustrate that shift.
The global recovered paper market experienced “a quite challenging year” in 2017, according to an expert at paper industry research firm RISI. And those challenges are only expected to continue as Chinese import restrictions ramp up.
Update: China has filed its official contamination proposals with the World Trade Organization, and they list a 0.5 percent threshold for most recyclables, down from the 1 percent limit that was previously considered.
China will shift its planned threshold for contamination in scrap paper imports from 0.3 percent to 1 percent, seemingly in response to concerns the original proposed limit would be impossible to hit.
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Pratt Industries plans to break ground on a sizable recycled containerboard mill in the Midwest next year, a move that’s part of the company’s vertical integration strategy.
Graphic Packaging closed down its Santa Clara, Calif. facility in early December. Photo: Google Maps
Graphic Packaging closed its Santa Clara, Calif. recycled paperboard mill at the beginning of December, citing high costs and market volatility as contributing to the decision.
Less than one-quarter of the fiber used last year by consumer products company Kimberly-Clark came from recycled sources, the lowest percentage in at least six years.
Republic Services reported higher recycling revenues during the third quarter, and it expects its acquisition of MRF operator ReCommunity will boost tonnages it processes by about half going forward.
When it began facing constricted fiber exports to China, Waste Management adapted by selling into alternative markets. As a result, it has been able to avoid stockpiling or landfilling recyclables, company CEO Jim Fish said.
Global packaging producer Sonoco recycled the equivalent of 57 percent of the packaging it placed on the market last year.