The Company knows and understands that as long as the quality of recycled paper keeps on falling, buyers will demand increasingly higher quality material. The aim therefore is to reduce the amount of low quality mixed paper material and increase the supply of single streams – mainly clear pure white paper. Optimum sorting is becoming increasingly important. Pure white paper gives much higher returns than mixed materials. Meanwhile, all sorts of innovative paper materials are appearing on the market that does not make recycling any easier.

New barrier properties are being added to paper so that it can be used instead of plastics. ’The coronavirus crisis has had a considerable impact on the recycling market, including the recovered paper market. One of the effects of the measures taken to control the coronavirus is a decline in the amount of waste paper being collected from households and businesses. At the same time the demand for recovered paper is increasing, partly because people are ordering more products online to be delivered to their homes. This change in supply and demand could push up the price of recovered paper.

But even in this time of crisis, the focus on quality remains the same. The measures which the Company is taking to control the quality of the paper collected include:

• Focus on quality than quantity.

• Make quality a consideration in the choice of collection system.

• Ensure that paper is put alone in recycling bins

• Support local authorities in ensuring adequate enforcement when contamination levels become too high.