I have never experienced a time like this in all my years in the recycling sector. In previous years, when the market at home was tough, we were able to turn to the export market or trade our way out. For mixed paper, that export market was ripped out when China banned its import from the beginning of this year. Unless we improve soon, there is a risk we could lose our main export market, China, for other grades too.
I visited China just a few weeks ago, kindly invited by CycleLink UK to attend a conference on quality there – and it’s clear that Chinese reprocessors and packaging manufacturers are as worried as we are. They are worried because the Chinese Government wants self-sufficiency, but the mills want the fibre quality provided by the export market, that just isn’t available in China at present.
So we have to focus on quality in the UK, to ensure that the fibre that we can still send to China meets its quality specifications perfectly and does not scare the Chinese government into thinking that we are exporting our waste rather than a commodity.
The view in China is that the Government will continue to turn the screw, gradually making things tougher to export there. Already this year, we have seen the paper mills only getting small tranches of their import quotas. This has meant that they have not been able to buy in large volumes, but also cannot plan ahead.
When I was speaking to representatives of CycleLink and others in China, they made it clear that we have got to focus on quality as there is no option not to. They see these import quota restrictions as a warning sign that unless things improve rapidly, we may eventually see a ban on all imports like we have seen for mixed paper and plastics.
The 0.5% contamination limit is effectively now in force, reduced from the previous 1.5% and the Chinese Government appear determined to enforce this quality focus. To meet these specifications, it is clear that we need a fundamental rethink on how we produce and collect materials in this country with a clear focus on quality.
This means everyone in the supply chain, from product designer and manufacturer, from retailer to local authorities, waste management companies and recyclers, has got to engage and take responsibility. We’ve got to make products easier to recycle and easier to collect with quality and purity being the prime motivation.
We should also remember, that if we don’t do this, the Chinese will look to America before us. This is because they see the fibre length of US material as better, plus material coming from the West Coast of the USA is drier and has a shorter shipping journey than from Europe.
It was heartening that Defra officials joined us on the trip to China, and I hope they have reported back to minister Thérèse Coffey the seriousness of the situation. As Echo Wu from CycleLink said at the conference in China, “uncertainty lies in the future, big changes are coming”.
