At a time when environmental promises are being made – and broken – almost every day, the European paper recycling industry has achieved its target.

In the global fight against climate change, every organisation and business now needs to have a clear set of sustainability values. Driven by changing consumer attitudes, in government departments and company boardrooms all over the world, ministers and managers have been setting out their policies for the environment.

Key to these policies are targets: targets for emissions, targets for carbon footprints, targets for energy use, targets for air quality, targets for preservation. One of the most famous targets is the one set at the COP21 climate conference in Paris: the binding agreement between 196 countries required to limit their emissions to 2ºC with an aspiration of 1.5ºC.

But while the Paris target is starting to look a little shaky – especially given the underwhelming results of the COP26 event in 2021 – there’s one target that was made in the same year as the Paris Agreement that’s actually been achieved. And more people should know about it.

A Serious Commitment

In 2016, the signatories of the European Declaration on Paper Recycling declared their commitment to reach a 74% paper recycling rate by 2020. This declaration stated that “Different patterns in consumption, new technologies and diversifying application of paper-based solutions make it challenging to maintain recycling rates, which are now starting to reach a theoretical maximum.”

But through determination, investment and sheer hard work, the European paper recycling value chain achieved its target, and it was announced in July 2021 that 73.9% of all paper and board consumed in Europe in 2020 was recycled.

“Reaching our set 74% paper recycling target shows the paper and board value chain is serious about its understanding as a role model for circularity and will continue to be,” said Annick Carpentier, Director General of The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE) and Chairwoman of the EPRC.

The Numbers Behind The Figure

Achieving a target of three-quarters consumption of recycled paper and board throughout Europe is remarkable enough, but go through the figures behind the percentage and it becomes even more impressive. While the total amount of paper and board used reached 75.8 million tonnes, the amount collected for recycling was 56 million tonnes. This resulted in an increase in the recycling rate from 72.5% in 2019 to 73.9% in 2020.

Looking back at the history of paper and board recycling in Europe, this small increase is part of a much larger surge in the recycling rate. Since 1998 – the base year for the first voluntary commitment set in the European Declaration on Paper Recycling – recycling has increased by a massive 40%, or 16 million tonnes.

Around the world, Europe is now the undisputed champion of paper recycling, with paper fibres used 3.8 times on average in 2020, compared to the world average of 2.4 times.

And There’s More…

But it’s not just a high recycling rate that Europe’s paper industry should be proud of. Over the past two decades, it’s made giant leaps forward in other areas of sustainability, such as its use of renewable energy and carbon emissions. In 2020, 62% of the European paper industry’s fuel consumption was based on renewable energy, largely derived from woody biomass from sustainably managed European forests. In addition, direct carbon emissions from the industry decreased by 7.1%.

“I am proud to announce that our investments in reducing emissions and using more renewable energy are paying off,” said Jori Ringman, Director General of the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI). “We continue to lead among industries switching to renewable energy.”

Spread The Word

Given the multitude of stats and research around the sustainability success of the European paper industry, it’s perhaps surprising that more people don’t know about it. A study conducted by Two Sides and research company Toluna highlighted a lack of awareness of just how much paper is recycled.

Despite 63% of European consumers stating that paper/card is better for the environment as a packaging material, just 30% knew that the recycling rate exceeds 60%. Taken alongside the finding that just 9% of consumers understand that European forests are growing, when European forests actually grew by an area larger than Switzerland between 2005 and 2020, there’s clearly a perception gap that needs to be addressed.

This gap will only be closed when more people are made more aware of the achievements made by the European paper industry and the huge amount of work that goes into sustaining this success.

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