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Foreign Recovered Paper Not Foreign Garbage
2019-06-02 09:10chinapaperonline.com
(www.chinapaperonline.com) Since the 3rd Quarter 2017, Chinese authorities have slowed down the release of recovered paper import quota and reduced the volume of each lot of quota at the same time. Until May 15, 2019, only seven lots of quota for year 2019 were released, significantly less than that in the same period of the previous year. This prompted concerns inside and outside China on the country’s stricter controls on recovered paper imports and let price of China’s domestically recovered paper to surge, while suppressing price in USA, Japan and other recovered paper supplier markets.
Such concerns were even deepened by reports of a speech by the director of solid waste and chemicals department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. The speech was initially read as reaffirmation of the government’s determination to end recovered paper imports before 2021.
Recent discussions, however, seemed to draw people’s attention to “accurate interpretation and full understanding” of government policy on environmental protection and sustainable economic development. While some people continuing their insistence that imports of recovered paper from abroad are contaminating China’s soil and water and should be completely banned by 2020, others argue that recovered paper is a main source of recyclable fiber that are accepted and used worldwide, including USA, Canada and many European countries. The outthrows in recovered paper can be minimized to 0.5% or less with zero tolerance to toxic and radioactive contents - a requirement set by the Chinese government and strictly monitored by inspection authorities at the loading and unloading ports before getting into China. Further, by using recycled fiber from recovered paper, the society is in fact saving forest resources and improving the environment as consumption of 1 metric tons of recovered paper substitutes 4-7 cubic meters of virgin wood and lowering +50% of pollution from virgin fiber pulping, not to speak of the millions of job opportunities created by the paper industry which serves more than 60 other industries in the economy of China today.
As more people joining the discussion, which is now developing into an open debate online and offline, there is at least a consensus for now that a full understanding of the government policy is necessary and whether or not clean recovered paper from both domestic and foreign generation are sources of raw materials, not contaminated trash that should be eliminated from import and recyclable use for good.
Market observers hailed such debate in the hope that it will not only clear possible confusion, but more importantly, build a common ground for both the authorities and the industry to follow. Afterall, much of China’s paper industry, through decades of transformation from pulping straw into fiber with serious pollution, is now built on consumption of recycled fiber from recovered paper from inside and outside China. And laws, regulations and procedures on contamination inspection are established and carried out by authorities and the industry nowadays. Therefore, a careful balance between elimination of contaminants from all origins and provide raw materials to China’s paper industry should be built and maintained, in addition to the consistent efforts necessary to differentiate clean and recyclable raw materials from contaminated solid waste.

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