Page 75 - Plastics News May 2024

IN THE NEWS
IN THE NEWS

Once a growing market, recycled pulp exports dry up

Although recycled pulp export activity has slowed considerably, Total Fiber Recovery has started up its mill
in Virginia and is producing bales of dried recycled pulp for export and domestic sale. | Photo courtesy Total
Fiber Recovery

in a recent interview. Resource Recy-
cling spoke with Moore and others to
learn about the industry challenges
and the few bright spots.
Roots in the China ban

The concept of shipping recycled pulp
from the U.S. to China – or, indeed, to
any country – was unusual in 2018.
That year, just 16,000 short tons of
recycled pulp were exported to China,
and just 48,000 tons were exported al-
together. Export volumes had hovered
around that range since at least 2002,
the earliest year export records are
available, although they spiked above
100,000 tons for a few years in the
early 2010s. Mostly, it was a negligible
export commodity.
That’s partially because there is a lot of
n May 2018, as the global arm America Chung Nam, these pur- work involved in transporting pulp: Af-
recycling industry was reel- chases marked the company’s first ter processing the raw recovered paper
ing from the Chinese govern- entrance into the U.S. market as more and pulping it, the pulp must be dried
ment’s move to ban or heavily than a material buyer. And the com- before being loaded into shipping con-
restrict imports of key recovered paper pany’s next move was equally striking: tainers for the long journey across the
grades, the largest paper company in Nine Dragons announced it would in- ocean. In its wet form, pulp only has a
China made an investment that drew stall recycled fiber processing capacity few days before it would start to mold
some attention. at two of the virgin paper mills, and the or otherwise deteriorate in quality.
company said it would begin shipping Those steps didn’t make sense as long
Nine Dragons that month announced it as raw mixed paper and OCC could be
would buy two U.S. virgin paper mills the vast majority of recycled pulp pro- shipped into China, where the pulping
in Rumford, Maine, and Biron, Wiscon- duced at the U.S. mills into China. would then take place.
sin. Just three months later, the com- Other companies followed suit, an-
pany announced it would purchase a nouncing plans for projects that would So the series of actions by the largest
recycled paper mill in Fairmont, West export finished pulp to China. And in- paper company in China underscored
Virginia. And in October 2018, the deed, recycled pulp exports rose fast how the global paper recycling indus-
company announced it would buy a in the years that followed. But six years try was evolving in the wake of China’s
fourth U.S. mill in Old Town, Maine, later, they have now slowed almost to import restrictions. The purchases
producing virgin fiber. a halt, export figures show. were part of a broad fiber sourcing
strategy laid out by Nine Dragons,
Although Nine Dragons was well- “These projects in the U.S. have just which was significantly impacted by
known as a massive buyer of U.S. never panned out,” said Bill Moore, a losing access to abundant recovered
recovered paper through its sourcing longtime recovered paper consultant, fiber imports.

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