Papermaking must not be forgotten

Recently, an article published by China Economic Net titled "Throw away the crutches and build an ideal Chinese paper industry can achieve stability and long-term development" has aroused the attention of the paper industry. The author is from an economic research institute in Shanghai. The use of the situation, listed the data and proposed that my country's paper industry "should make concerted efforts to protect foreign waste paper, and never allow anyone to only care about the immediate interests, use various excuses to advocate the import of foreign waste paper, and only throw away the foreign waste paper imported. Only by sticking a stick and building an ideal beacon can we inherit the glory of our ancestors, carry forward it, and continue to innovate and catch up with the advanced road.

How can traditional industries achieve green and sustainable development? It is a topic that our paper industry has been discussing for a long time and is constantly exploring. The author and his institution stand outside the industry to make suggestions for the paper industry. We should first express our gratitude. The healthy development of China's paper industry requires social attention and more. People of insight come to make plans.

However, judging from the article, most of the arguments for the author's views come from online information. The author himself does not know much about the paper industry, has no on-the-spot research or interviews, or has other deeper reasons. The environmental protection policies of China are not consistent, and it is not applicable to the current development of China's paper industry.

As early as 2013, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed in his speech that saving resources is the fundamental strategy for protecting the ecological environment. He emphasized the need to vigorously save and intensively use resources, promote the fundamental transformation of resource utilization methods, vigorously develop circular economy, and promote the reduction, reuse and resource utilization of production, circulation and consumption processes.

The papermaking industry, especially the papermaking that uses waste paper as raw material, has a simple pulping process, low energy consumption and less pollution. It is a typical recycling, low-carbon, ecological, and sustainable development industry. "It's called "urban forest".

The author wrote in the article that "foreign waste paper...is the last fortress that must be overcome to completely prohibit the entry of foreign waste." Obviously, the concepts of imported waste paper, solid waste and foreign waste are confused.

The author reviewed several important documents issued by the General Administration of Customs in recent years. As the inspection agency of the Customs, the first consideration for the determination of whether imported products are solid wastes is the inspection standards and basis. GB34330-2017 "General Principles of Solid Waste Identification Standards" It is the only standard for solid waste identification. This standard is a national mandatory standard released in 2017, and is regarded as a regulation and enforced.

From the standard point of view, currently imported waste paper is indeed still solid waste (whether waste paper is a resource and waste is different, which is not discussed here), but on January 31, 2013, the General Administration of Customs issued the "General Administration of Customs The Notice on Supervision of Imported Solid Waste to Strictly Crack Down on Smuggling of "Foreign Waste" defines "solid waste" as a renewable resource that the state implements import license management and can be recycled; Electronic waste, domestic waste, medical waste, industrial slag, old clothing, construction waste, etc. generated overseas listed in the Catalog.

Obviously, solid waste is not equal to foreign garbage. Imported waste paper that belongs to solid waste will not be foreign waste.

And more importantly, waste paper is different from waste plastics and scrap steel, which have been completely banned from importing. It is the raw material for paper making with the lowest pollution and meets the requirements of circular economy. For my country, which lacks virgin pulp, waste paper resources It is a solid foundation for my country to become a strong country in the paper industry.

According to the "2018 Annual Report of China's Paper Industry" released by the latest, my country consumed a total of 54.74 million tons of waste paper pulp in 2018, accounting for 58% of the total pulp consumption, of which 16% was made from imported waste paper and 16% was made from domestic waste paper. Pulping accounted for 42%. Among the top 30 enterprises in the country in terms of paper production, 19 of them have production lines that use waste paper to make paper.

These data fully demonstrate that waste paper is an indispensable raw material for my country's paper industry, and imported waste paper, which accounts for 16% of the total, is the third largest source of raw materials for my country's paper making, and the fourth largest source of raw materials in addition to domestic waste paper and imported wood pulp. The largest source of raw materials is the sum of domestic wood pulp and the fifth largest source of raw materials, non-wood pulp (reed pulp, bagasse pulp, bamboo pulp, rice straw pulp, etc.).

First of all, this has no practical significance for reducing the import of foreign garbage. As mentioned above, imported waste paper itself is not foreign garbage, and now the impurity content of imported waste paper has dropped to below 0.5%, which is also the lowest possible impurity content of waste paper in theory, especially when customs inspection and quarantine agencies are abroad, After two strict domestic inspections, the amount of other impurities entering the country with imported waste paper has been minimal.

Even if there is a very small amount of impurities that may be brought in, through the innovation and investment of domestic papermaking enterprises in the production process, waste residue utilization and other links, the maximum utilization of resources can be achieved, and the zero discharge of solid waste has been achieved in some enterprises.

Secondly, my country's paper industry has long faced the reality of the shortage of fiber raw materials. The domestic production of virgin wood pulp is insufficient, and the growth space is limited. The utilization rate of domestic recyclable waste paper is close to the limit. Although non-wood pulp has development prospects, in the short term It also faces the technical difficulties of large-scale production and environmental protection, and the increment will not be fast.

Therefore, the development of the industry can only be supported by importing fiber raw materials from abroad, which not only consumes a large amount of foreign exchange, but also increases the foreign dependence of Chinese enterprises' development and weakens the competitiveness of enterprises.

According to the annual report of the National Paper Association, the national paper and cardboard production in 2018 was 104.35 million tons, a decrease of 6.24% over the previous year. The impact on the environment, and the sharp drop in the amount of imported waste paper is also an important reason, which not only brings business risks to enterprises, but also brings upstream and downstream recycling, equipment, chemical industry, packaging, printing, logistics and other related industries. influence.

Since 2012, the annual Central Economic Work Conference has taken "seeking progress while maintaining stability" as the general tone of China's economic work, and the development of the paper industry has always followed the national policy, promoting the high quality of the industry through transformation and upgrading. develop. However, if there is no "stable" supply of raw materials, the "forward" of the industry will not be guaranteed.

Regarding the controversial article, it is proposed that the paper industry can only "go steady and far-reaching" after "throwing away the foreign crutches", which is not only a one-sided and misunderstanding of the national environmental protection policy, but also a lack of basic understanding of the paper industry.

Now many friends from the media and research institutions are very concerned about the development of China's paper industry, and they are also learning about the paper industry through various channels. Here we hope and welcome every friend who pays attention to the development of the paper industry to cooperate with China Paper Association, "China Paper" magazine and other industry authoritative organizations communicate with the media more, through us to understand the real development of the industry, and continue to put forward good and feasible suggestions for the development of China's paper industry.