{"id":19262,"date":"2022-10-18T11:54:58","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T09:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flustix.com\/blog\/why-do-we-have-too-little-waste-paper-even-though-the-garbage-cans-are-always-overflowing\/"},"modified":"2022-11-07T12:04:53","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T11:04:53","slug":"why-do-we-have-too-little-waste-paper-even-though-the-garbage-cans-are-always-overflowing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flustix.com\/en\/blog\/why-do-we-have-too-little-waste-paper-even-though-the-garbage-cans-are-always-overflowing\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do we have too little waste paper, even though the garbage cans are always overflowing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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15 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS<\/span><\/h3>[vc_column_text]Our “pet” is black on the bottom and blue on top. When we travel, it must be cared for, guarded and moved by dear neighbors. It is our paper garbage can. It is emptied only once a month. If that should go wrong just once, we will sink into cardboard chaos: boxes will then pile up to the ceiling, gradually flood all the rooms and call the exhibition team on the plan …<\/span><\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]By our author Ulrike Seidel<\/span><\/p>\n

It feels like we have a lot more waste paper than we used to – even though we don’t subscribe to any newspapers, there’s a “No advertising, please” sign on the mailbox, and copy paper is printed on both sides in our house.
\nMy husband, who must have been a gifted Tetris player when he was young, regularly folds, creases and sorts the paper waste in such a way that it comes close to filling the blue garbage can. Maybe he even secretly keeps an Excel spreadsheet. And yet…<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes the school collects waste paper or the fire department. But when I initially rejoiced and thought I could charitably donate several trunk loads of cardboard, came the rude awakening: nix there! They want only the very finest newspapers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is there about good and bad waste paper? And does not it all end up in Africa anyway? And do we recycle about so little that we even have to import toilet paper?<\/span><\/p>\n

flustix has taken a closer look at the topic of waste paper – and answered the 15 most important questions<\/span>.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

1. How much paper are we actually talking about?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The per capita consumption of paper per year is calculated at 227 kilos, of which about 105 kilos in private households. In 2020, 18.3 million tons of paper were consumed in Germany – and 14.5 million tons of recovered paper were collected by private and municipal waste management companies. That is a waste paper return rate of 79 percent.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

2. Could we collect even more waste paper if we made more of an effort?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

No, about 21 percent of the paper consumed is not recyclable and collectable, primarily of course the hygiene papers (toilet paper, tissues, etc.). However, the collected paper is recycled on average 3.5 times in Europe.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″]

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3. Is our new paper made from trees or really from waste paper?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Mostly actually made from waste paper. According to information from the Federal Environment Agency, 21.4 million tons of paper were produced in Germany in 2020. 79 percent of the raw material was waste paper, totaling 16.9 million tons. Half of hygiene papers are made from virgin fibers and half from recycled paper. Particularly in the case of sanitary papers, but also in the case of other products, the proportion of recovered paper could still increase if more recycled variants were purchased. By the way, recycled paper can be recognized by the official and independent seals, to which flustix also belongs. What we do there exactly, is here<\/a>.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/3″]

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4. Is the collected waste paper enough to make enough new paper from it?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

No, part of the raw materials must be imported! From January to August 2021, for example, about 3.4 million tons of waste paper and 3.0 million tons of wood and pulp came to Germany. Most of the pulp for the German paper industry came from Brazil, Sweden and Finland.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

5. Is part of the waste paper from the Blue Bins also simply incinerated?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

No, waste paper is far too valuable for that – and usually too scarce anyway. 99.3 percent of the waste paper collected in Germany is recycled, for example for the production of new paper. Waste products from subsequent paper production, however, are burned.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

6. is recycled paper really good for the environment – or yet eyewash?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Often you hear that paper recycling protects the forests – but that’s supposedly it with the benefit for the environment and nature. Too energy-intensive processes, too much chemistry. But that’s not true. The environmental state had the eco-balance of graphic papers tested – these are papers for newspapers and magazines, writing or copying papers. The recycled paper won against the fresh-fiber one in almost all points:<\/span><\/p>\n