The Finnish paper manufacturer collected 1,000 tonnes in 2008, according to the head of pre-consumer recycled paper sourcing, Federico Dossena, but he said this year’s figure would probably be lower as there were fewer presses operating.
The waste paper will be put into bales by waste management company Remondis before it is transported to the UPM mill in Hürth (50km from Düsseldorf) where it will become raw material for paper production.
UPM said it used 4m tonnes of recovered paper per year, which made it "the world’s largest user of recovered paper in graphic papers".
Dossena told drupa report daily that the 24,000-person operation was committed to recycling paper because it was important to conserve the world’s scarce natural resources.
About a third of the fibre raw material used in UPM’s paper production comes from recovered paper, the company said.
UPM has 23 paper mills, four of which produce paper from 100% recovered paper – Hürth, Schwedt (Germany), Chapelle (France) and Shotton (UK). Other mills to use recovered paper are Augsburg, Ettringen, Plattling, Schongau (Germany), Kaipola (Finland) and Steyrermühl (Austria).
UPM is considering working with recovered paper in the other mills, but they would first have to be converted, according to Dossena. He said UPM had helped the sustainability cause by introducing the treating of siliconised paper in December.
