BIG JUMP IN EUROPEAN PAPER RECYCLING RATE

The European Recycling rate reached 52.1% last year. Paper consumption registered a sharp fall of 4% whereas utilisation of recovered paper increased by 0.8% for 42 million tonnes. The combined effect of these two trends is that the recycling rate jumped from 49.7% in 2000 to 52.1 in 2001. Owing to the decrease in consumptionof paper and board, less paper was available for collection and recycling. Nevertheless, the fact more was collected and recycled is considered a great achievement. Recovered paper represented 42% of the total volume of the raw material used by Europe's paper industry-close to the virgin fibre share of 43%.