The Future Opportunities and Problems in the New Target of Waste Paper Utilization in Japan

Abstract

The Japan Paper Association implemented “Recycle 56 Plan” in 1995, in which 56% of waste paper utilization rate was set as a target to be achieved by the end of 2000. We successfully achieved it one year before the target date. Then, the Paper Recycle Engineering Committee has reviewed related issues such as limit of utilization rate, impact on natural environment, cost, and gap between recovery rate and utilization rate in order to decide a new target for 2005.As a result of the review, we found out that the technically possible highest utilization rate for the current paper product mix in Japan is approximately 65%. However, taking possible recovery rate in 2005 into consideration, we can say that upper limit of utilization rate in 2005 will be about 60%. We also found out that at the level of 60%, impact on natural environment will be also improved. However, it is also true that not so many paper mills can financially justify investment in DIP capacity expansion even though today's market price of waste paper is the lowest in the history. We set the new target of60% of waste paper utilization rate for 2005 last December. but we still have to tackle many challenges to achieve it.