Waste paper has never attracted the attention of papermakers

Recently, I saw that a researcher of an economic research institute outside the industry published an article about China's paper industry. Based on the idea of "the truth is more and more clear", as a Chinese papermaker who has worked in the paper industry for many years, I also talk about personal opinion.

Is waste paper really "waste"?

Waste paper, the explanation on the Internet Encyclopedia is "generally refers to the recyclable and renewable resources that are used and discarded in production and life". From this explanation, we can see that "use-discard-recycling" is the cyclical life chain of paper, "Waste" is only the state of paper at a certain point in time, so "waste paper is a resource, not equivalent to garbage" is not only the consensus of the industry, but also the consensus of the general public.

Using waste paper to make paper helps to reduce the harvesting of native forests and reduce greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions (the use of 1 ton of waste paper can replace the use of 4-7 cubic meters of virgin wood, and the overall pollutant production is 50% lower than that of native plant pulping and paper making above), known as "urban forest", and waste paper has therefore become a strategic resource that many countries compete for.

Developed countries such as the United States, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom attach great importance to the resource utilization of waste paper, and import a certain amount of waste paper to varying degrees every year according to needs.

Due to the imbalance of economic development and consumption levels among regions, there are huge differences in waste paper resources among different regions. It is especially obvious that paper products, which are mainly paper packaging materials, have flowed from major manufacturing countries to major consuming countries along with export commodities (with China For example, it is estimated that over 20 million tons of paper and cardboard materials have been exported with products each year in recent years).

This part of waste paper resources can only be recycled abroad, and then returned to China in the form of international trade. Therefore, the international trade of waste paper belongs to the return and rebalancing of resources to a large extent, rather than the so-called "garbage transfer".

At present, the inclusion content of imported waste paper in my country is limited to less than 0.5%, which is the strictest standard in the world. Many waste papers that meet this condition are cartons directly recovered from supermarkets and trimmings directly recovered from cardboard carton factories. , is a high-quality papermaking raw material.

my country's customs also have strict inspection and quarantine, fumigation and disinfection procedures, as well as the equipment, technology and management of advanced paper-making enterprises, which make imported waste paper not only effectively used, but also eliminate environmental risks.

Can "Chinese consumption" and "Made in China" rely on imported paper?

Before talking about this issue, let's briefly review the history of Chinese papermaking and see how the modern Chinese papermaking industry "stands up"?

Having said that, some people may ask, "Papermaking" is obviously one of the "Four Great Inventions" that Chinese people are proud of. Everyone on earth knows that we were ahead of the world more than 1900 years ago, so why is there still a problem of "standing up"?

In the era of manual papermaking, my country's papermaking industry has indeed been leading the world in the history of more than 1,000 years. However, after modern times, manual papermaking has been gradually replaced by machine papermaking, and China's papermaking industry has lagged far behind developed countries. .

You should still remember that in the early days of reform and opening up, China's manufacturing industry began to flourish, but the development of China's paper industry was far behind the development of the manufacturing industry. High-grade packaging paper must rely on imports, which not only consumes a lot of foreign exchange, but also affects the national economy and people's livelihood. It is not pleasant to feel that the national industry has to be stuck in the neck by foreign countries.

"China has first-class products, but third-class packaging." This sentence, which was widely circulated in those years, also deeply pierced the hearts of Chinese papermakers.

The huge production and living needs of the country and the people urgently call for the Chinese paper industry to embark on the road of rejuvenation as soon as possible. With the strong support of the state, people of insight in the industry have made great efforts. After more than 30 years of unremitting efforts, China Paper has once again stood on the top of the world.

In this process, papermaking from waste paper has contributed a lot.

We all know that my country is a country that lacks resources, especially the severe shortage of wood fiber resources, which is far from being able to support the demand for papermaking in China.

In the 1970s and 1980s, our country was dominated by straw pulp and other fiber raw materials, which were of poor quality and serious pollution. The paper industry at that time also left a bad impression on everyone.

After the 1990s, a group of domestic excellent paper-making enterprises introduced international advanced equipment and used imported waste paper and domestic waste paper as the main raw materials (especially the waste paper with high virgin fiber content such as American waste), and produced high-quality and high-quality waste paper. Inexpensive wrapping paper completely replaces imported paper to meet the needs of domestic people's livelihood, and also greatly reduces the cost of packaging, helping "Made in China" to go global. This is a major contribution made by China's modern paper industry to the national economy.

Looking around the world, every industrial power in the world currently has a strong paper industry (no one relies on imported paper to meet its own needs), and the paper industry is therefore listed as one of the several pillar industries of various countries.

my country also lists the paper industry as a basic raw material industry, and no country is willing to build its basic raw material industry on the basis of imports from other countries.

Moreover, the paper industry has a long industrial chain and involves a wide range of fields. According to statistics, in 2017, the number of employed persons in the paper and paper products industries above designated size in my country reached 1.271 million, and the related upstream and downstream industrial chains were as many as millions, solving a large number of problems for the country. employment.

As the saying goes, "A smart woman can't cook without rice", if there is a shortage of papermaking raw materials, it cannot be solved by the good equipment and technology used by papermaking enterprises.

We can imagine that if the shortage of raw materials intensifies, the vicious circle of the industry that may be brought is:

Poor quality and high price of waste paper raw materials =>

The quality of domestic packaging paper declines and the price rises =>

Overall packaging cost rise =>

Rising prices of various consumer goods and logistics / Declining competitiveness of China's manufacturing industry =>

Affect national taxation and employment;

At the same time, foreign papermaking raw materials are of good quality and cheap =>

Imported paper floods into the Chinese market =>

Serious impact on China's paper industry =>

Gradually go back to the early stage of reform and opening up, and mainly import paper.

At that time, it is not only China's paper industry that will be hit, but also China's packaging industry, China's manufacturing industry and other related upstream and downstream industrial chains will be affected, thereby affecting the stability of the national economy, residents' consumption and employment.

Taking history as a mirror, we can know the rise and fall.

The development achievements of China's paper industry are hard-won and worth cherishing.

I believe that with the joint efforts of everyone, China's papermaking industry, which has lasted nearly 2,000 years of vitality, will surely usher in a brighter future, continue to benefit mankind and serve a better life!