It's secondary fiber or recovered fiber in the industry parlance.
The demand is ever increasing due to advances in ink-removal and paper making technology which makes recycled paper as good as those produced from virgin pulp.
Go to the Tipco paper mill in Mabalacat and find out for yourself.
This company's 100 percent recycled newsprint paper runs in the same printing presses abroad as those with virgin paper from Japan, the United States and other countries.
Quality is great. The heavily printed old newspapers fed at the pulpier come out at the tail end with almost no trace of ink.
The local paper industry is heavily dependent on secondary fiber.
All paper mills, except for one, which has a huge tree plantation in the South, rely on wastepaper as raw material.
The problem is that supply is not enough to satisfy domestic consumption.
The main problem is low recovery rate of paper scrap. Waste segregation is not yet widely practiced in the Philippines.
A lot of good paper waste is burned, or thrown into dumpsites where they are soiled and rendered useless.
Buying price is high due to inefficient collection and transport.
Now local recyclers are facing another big problem. Wanting to earn a few pesos more, some traders export local wastepaper to other countries.
China is one of the major destinations. With the supply shortage, local mills are forced to import wastepaper from Europe and the United States and thus increase their production cost.
And here's the horrible thing. That exported local wastepaper comes back as cheap finished goods, competing again with our local products.
It's a double kill for the local paper industry that has to contend with other problems like high energy cost and smuggling.
Imagine the thousands of workers, millions of sorters, junk shops and push cart boys who will lose their source of income once the paper industry collapses.
This situation is not unique to the Philippines. Other Association of South East Asian Nation (Asean) countries share the same concern.
This problem was raised in the recently concluded conference of the Federation of Asean Pulp and Paper Industry (Fappi) held at the Dusit Hotel Nikko.
Representatives from Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan, Korea and Taiwan attended the event hosted by the Philippines.
In concurrence with their theme "Unity Amidst Diversity," the delegates unanimously agreed to draft a resolution to request the respective governments of each member country to enact a law that will prohibit the export of wastepaper in the Asean Region by any member of the federation.
Some countries in Europe and Asia have already adopted this policy to protect their own paper industries.
Let's help our local manufacturers. We as ordinary individuals can support the paper industry by selling to them our paper waste.
In doing so, we help solve the garbage problem, prevent pollution, save trees and earn money on the side.
For waste traders, think long term. Sell to the local mills. The downfall of our paper industry means no market for your waste in the future. That will leave you at the mercy of foreign businessmen.
For assistance on how to recycle your paper, call or text 0917-884-3447 or send an e-mail to rox_pena@yahoo.com.
