Australians recycled more than 180,000 tonnes of the newsprint it used in calendar year 2017, with 75.4% of all newspapers being recovered and recycled. That was down just 0.9% compared with the prior year, according to latest research by IndustryEdge, for NewsMediaWorks. Source: IndustryEdge
Despite the continued decline in consumption of newsprint (the data indicates a decline of 12.9% compared with 2016), the industry continues to exceed recovery and recycling expectations. The 2017 recovery and recycling result is consistent with world’s best practices according to Tim Woods at IndustryEdge.
“The world has some recycling challenges right now, but Australians are doing their bit,” Mr Woods told Daily Timber News. “Putting our newspapers out for recycling actually makes a difference.”
Despite maintaining the recovery rate, there have been changes brought about by the total amount of material recovered falling to 181,346 tonnes. This was down 14.2% on the prior year.
It seems that with the recovery rate stable, it is declining consumption that has driven the recovery and recycling volumes lower.
IndustryEdge commented that the destinations of the recovered material have changed dramatically in recent years. This is important because where recovered fibre goes provides indicators of the fibre strategies (and cost structures) of the products that are made from the recovered material.
Export volumes (all of which are destined for use in making recycled Newsprint and Packaging & Industrial papers) were down just 0.8% in 2017, totalling 100,034 tonnes. As a result, 55.2% of the total material recovered in the year was exported.
Australian Recovered Newsprint by Destination: 2017 (%)
Source: NewsMediaWorks & IndustryEdge
Once the largest proportional user of recovered newsprint, the packaging sector (recovered newsprint is almost exclusively used for recycled corrugated box production when it goes to packaging paper mills) used just 34,982 tonnes in 2017.
The migration away from newsprint by companies like Visy and Orora has been by necessity, as the volumes available are too limited for the sector that uses a total of something close to 850,000 tonnes of recovered fibre every year. Most of that is old corrugated boxes.
Local producer, Norske Skog, received back 24,580 tonnes of recovered newsprint. Its efforts to take stewardship of this volume is significant in a newsprint market that is experiencing such severe declines.
There is always interest in the ‘Other’ uses of recovered newsprint. So as not to identify the volume of recovered newsprint used by individual companies, this aggregated use (21,750 tonnes in 2017) includes the ‘moulded fibre’ (think of egg cartons and fruit trays) and pet litter sectors. It also includes soil stabilizer and composting activities.
The ‘Old Newsprint Recovery Figures’ Report is produced annually by IndustryEdge, for NewsMediaWorks, an industry association. It is one of the suite of paper and board recovery surveys, reports and analysis conducted by IndustryEdge each year, for companies, industry associations and government bodies.
A full copy of the report is available on request from IndustryEdge at [email protected] or from NewsMediaWorks at www.newsmediaworks.com.au
