The event rewards European projects, initiatives or campaigns that change the way we recycle paper in Europe and help to achieve the ambitious goal of a 74% paper recycling rate by 2020.
The European Paper Recycling Awards are run by the European Paper Recycling Council (EPRC). The ceremony awards the winners who have presented excellent and game-changing projects in two categories: “Innovative Technologies and R&D” and “Information & Education”.
The winners of this edition were the German company Repulping Technology GmbH & Co. KG for its technological developments and the international association Pro Carton for the educational work about paper recycling and its circular economy.
The first winner invented a new technology that makes the extraction of pulp fibres for recycling from products mixing papers and other material a lot easier and more energy efficient. The company’s new invention, the cavitation pulper, a machine exploiting the physical principle of cavitation, allows for an almost 100% recovery of the fibres from these products with an energy efficiency about 50% better than other technologies.
Pro Carton set up a European-wide educational program aimed at children primarily aged between 8 and 11 years and called TICCIT (Trees Into Cartons, Cartons Into Trees). The first of its geographical size, the program allows businesses across the paper value-chain to explain in schools the many benefits of recycling. The program reports a very high-degree of appreciation among the children with an expected spill over effect in families, leading to broader awareness of the importance of paper recycling.
During the ceremony, the Secretary of the EPRC and Cepi Raw Materials Director Ulrich Leberle presented the findings of the EPRC Monitoring Report 2018. He said “The Monitoring Report confirms that paper recycling in Europe continues to be on the right path and on the rise, reaching the level of 71.6% in 2018, even if the latest data shows a slight decline due to Chinese restrictions of import”.
