Road to recovery

The Recycling Today Media Group brought its Paper Recycling Conference model to New Delhi in late January 2015 in the form of the first Paper Recycling Conference India.

The Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi served as the venue for the conference, which brought together more than 200 delegates from the Indian subcontinent and other parts of the world Jan. 29-30.

Recycling Today and its media allies, Waste Recycling India, Mumbai, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based Waste & Recycling Middle East, organized the event. Several Indian papermaking and recycling associations also supported the conference.

The sessions at the two-day event sparked lively debates in the question-and-answer periods that followed, and the conversations continued at networking breaks that brought together brokers, processors and consumers of recovered paper.

The sessions also provided vital details on the status of the growing Indian paper industry and a recycling sector that is rife with additional growth opportunities.
 

Current deficit

As its paper industry continues to grow, India has come to rely on more than 2 million tons of imported recovered fiber to help meet its feedstock needs. But, with its domestic recovery rate estimated at from 25 to 33 percent, the country’s paper industry also is exploring how to recover more scrap paper closer to home.

Panelists at the conference’s keynote session offered varying opinions as to how India will find mill feedstock either within the nation or from overseas suppliers.

Jogarao Bhamidipati, who helps coordinate domestic scrap paper collection efforts for Indian paper manufacturer ITC Ltd., said India’s paper recovery rate may be as low as 25 percent. “What we actually throw away is what we need as an industry—nearly 8 million tons per year [of potential feedstock],” Bhamidipati said.

ITC operates a collection effort known as WOW (Wealth out of Waste) to encourage Indians to recycle paper beyond the commonly collected old corrugated containers (OCC) and old newspapers (ONP) grades. But, Bhamidipati said, “Things are not going the way we wanted. It’s a matter of discipline and the habits of people.”

Kolkata-based Emami Paper Mills Ltd. Executive Director P.S. Patwari said “the paper industry in our country is short of raw material. The future lies in recycling.”

An Indian government projection that its paper industry’s furnish needs will grow from 13 million to 14 million tons in 2015 to 25 million to 30 million tons in 2025 should be a wake-up call, Patwari said.

Patwari said even accepting a higher current domestic scrap paper recovery figure of 33 percent in India, that rate would still leave Indian mills from 7.5 million to 10 million tons shy of material in 2025.

Rahul Khanna, director of Khanna Paper Mills Ltd., Amritsar, India, offered encouragement that India would rise to the occasion regarding recycling. “We are going to recycle not out of choice—it is a necessity. We don’t have any other options, [but] necessity is the mother of invention.”

Consultant Arun Bijur of Chennai, India-based SPB Projects and Consultancy said he also was convinced “that recycling will be something that develops with much greater force in the years to come.”

Bijur, who has 45 years of experience in India’s paper industry, said the Indian government will need to play a role to introduce “a much better way to handle garbage” and recyclables in India.

Leading destination

North America’s view of India was the topic of a session that featured two of the largest recovered fiber exporters in the U.S.

Throughout the 21st century, China has established and consolidated its position as the leading destination for scrap paper exported from the United States.

But, the two U.S.-based exporters told attendees that India’s share of that fiber likely will grow in the next several years.

Session moderator Bill Moore of Moore & Associates, Atlanta, said annual paper and board production in the U.S. has declined since 2007, though recovery has increased. The booming paper producers in China have absorbed much of that recovered fiber in the past 12 years.

Peter Wang of America Chung Nam (ACN), City of Industry, California, said Chinese mills purchased 75 percent, or 11.5 million out of 15.3 million tons, of the scrap paper exported by the U.S. in 2014.

While China remains far and away No. 1 in volume, “India does play a strong role in the export market in the U.S.,” Wang said. He noted that while China brings in 68 percent of its U.S. fiber from the Pacific Coast, India helps keep Atlantic Coast exporters busy by procuring 99 percent of its U.S. supply from the East Coast.

The trend toward India having greater influence on the East Coast is growing, Wang said, noting that from 2012 to 2014 “China has reduced its [purchases] by 284,000 tons, while India is up by 262,000 tons in that same period.” Wang added, “India pretty much picked up anything China stopped buying.”

Ashu Vyas of Cellmark Recycling, San Rafael, California, also said recovered fiber exports to India are increasing “and we expect this trend to continue for some time.”

Vyas said a perceived blurring of specifications and grades in categories such as ONP and OCC concerns Indian buyers.

However, India’s paper mill sector relies on “customized” grades rather than “commoditized” grades, he added. Concerning this preference, he said, “This desire will influence the availability of U.S. supply.”

More Paper Recycling Conference India coverage is available at www.RecyclingToday.com by searching “PRC India.”

 

The author is editor of Recycling Today and can be contacted at btaylor@gie.net.