Paper is either manufactured from wood or bamboo, agriculture waste (bagasse, wheat straw) and waste paper itself. Waste paper is also known as recycled fibre (RCF) when used as raw material in paper industries. RCF based paper manufacturing is environment friendly as it doesn't involve high use of chemicals and is also less power and water consuming in nature.
To encourage waste paper-based production, more and more of wastepaper is required to be recirculated into the ecosystem and utilized in the industries as raw material. Wastepaper is collected from different sources (household, offices, schools, hospitals etc) and goes through the supply chain which is largely informal in nature.
The overall collection of waste paper in India at present is at par with the world's average figure of 58 per cent and it is largely in the hands of the informal sector.
Wastepaper is collected from households, residential societies, schools, hospitals, offices, etc. by kabadiwallahs & Ragpickers. The collection per day is in the range of about 4-5 kg of paper by rag picker and about 150-200 kg per day by kabadiwallahs. The kabadiwallahs and rag pickers sell each day’s collection to their contractor or ‘thekedaar’. Each contractor is connected to 10-20 kabadiwallahs and rag pickers. The contractors receive up to 1.5-2 tonnes of waste per day (including paper and cardboard). These contractors deal in each category of waste including paper, plastics, glass, etc.
Contractors segregate the waste they receive and sell to scrap dealers or aggregators. At this level waste is further segregated based on its quality. One scrap dealer or aggregator may receive about 100-400 tonnes per month of waste from about 5-10 contractors. Aggregators and scrap dealers sell to wholesalers/recyclers/suppliers, who in turn supply wastepaper to the paper industry. A recycler can supply anywhere between 200 to 6,000 tonnes of wastepaper per month to industries, depending upon the scale of their operation.Apart from this, some formal agencies are also involved as wholesalers (supplying to industries). These agencies have fixed industries where they supply the waste paper.
Wastepaper has some other applications as well before it reaches the industries. It is used by hawkers, by roadside eateries, in packaging of fruits, as egg/apple trays and in similar moulded items. Other applications include handmade paper units, record keeping, envelope making, as filling in leather bags, etc.
We analysed that about 9 million tonnes of waste paper is used in such secondary applications. This includes the wastepaper landfilled along with the mixed waste. The total usage in secondary applications is about 43 per cent of the total domestic consumption of paper. Majority of this diverted quantity finally ends up at dumpsites. Moreover, the diversion happens at the level of contractors or scrap dealers as the cost of wastepaper is relatively low at these levels.
The supply chain of wastepaper is majorly in the hands of the informal sector. Thus, there is almost no data available in any government report on the quantity of wastepaper diverted into secondary applications. This is precisely why CSE conducted an extensive ground survey of each level of the supply chain. It helped CSE understand the scenario and estimate waste paper consumption in secondary applications.
As per CSE estimates, the present recovery and utilization of waste paper by mills in India is about 12 million tonnes per annum, which translates to a recovery rate of 57 percent. This brings India close to many developed countries.. Europe at present recovers about 70%. The highest recovery rate is in Japan, which is about 80 percent.
Down to Earth is Science and Environment fortnightly published by the Society for Environmental Communication, New Delhi. We publish news and analysis on issues that deal with sustainable development, which we scan through the eyes of science and environment.