Until a few years ago, you could tell the beginning of the Christmas season from the garbage. At least on the waste paper: In the weeks leading up to the festival, gifts were eagerly bought, the paper containers overflowing with shipping boxes. In the meantime, one could think that Christmas is celebrated every day: In some communities, cardboard packaging now permanently accounts for at least half of the waste paper collected. The proportion of paper has been falling steadily for years. Since the beginning of the Corona crisis, even fewer newspapers, letters or advertising brochures have ended up in the trash. This tears gaps in the recycling of waste paper. In the meantime, the situation has worsened to such an extent that many are speaking of a “paper crisis”: paper has become a scarce commodity. Prices are rising rapidly and publishers are worried about their reserves.What about the future of the paper industry? And what are the consequences of the current situation for paper recycling?
Rebecca Hahn
Freelance writer in the science of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
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Paper consumption can be inspected on the grounds of the Meinhardt waste management company in Hofheim-Wallau near Frankfurt.
Operations manager Dennis Göttert leads the way towards a large pile of unsorted waste paper.
The first thing that catches the eye are the brown cardboard boxes that make up a good half of the mountain of waste.
Smaller mailing bags from online retailers can be found among them, as well as bulky furniture packaging and broken moving boxes.
In between there are tattered advertising brochures, colorfully printed cereal boxes, washing powder boxes and a few daily newspapers.
Is the special sorting of waste paper still worthwhile?
The medium-sized company processes almost 120,000 tons of waste paper at four locations in the Rhine-Main area every year, around half of which is sorted in Hofheim-Wallau. "We collect and recycle the contents of the blue bins in the Main-Taunus district," reports Göttert. But these amounts of waste paper are not enough to operate the paper sorting plant. For this reason, waste paper from the city of Mainz is also sorted on behalf of a paper factory. In addition, there would be commercial waste that would be delivered directly from companies, petrol stations or discounters.
“The proportion of paper in the blue bins has dropped dramatically in recent years,” says Göttert. A few years ago the waste paper would have consisted of a good sixty percent paper. In the meantime, the paper bins from private households are filled with paper and cardboard in roughly equal proportions. “There are probably two reasons for this,” says Göttert. “On the one hand, more parcels are being sent online. On the other hand, the number of newspaper subscriptions is falling. "
This paper-to-cardboard ratio has shifted even further since the beginning of the Corona crisis: some of the daily newspapers were thinner, brochures and flyers were produced in small numbers, and waste paper from large offices fell away. At the same time, online trading experienced an upswing - and with it parcel shipping. According to the industry association “Die Papierindustrie”, more so-called graphic paper, ie types suitable for printing, was produced from January to June of this year than in the same period in 2020. Nevertheless, paper prices remain at a high level. Wholesale prices for mixed waste paper in September were more than three times as high as at the same time last autumn. The reason for this is that so little paper ends up in the blue bin.Because light-colored paper cannot be made from the dark fibers of the cardboard boxes.