Paper recycling

In Europe, around half of the paper used by the combined paper and board industries is made from recycled materials. A total of 58.2 million tonnes of paper and board were re-cycled in Europe in 2006; an increase of 5.7 million tonnes (or +9.8%) since 2004.

The UK has an even higher ratio of recycled paper, with two-thirds coming from recycled sources. Papermakers rely on ‘urban forests’ to source the raw materials needed to support paper industries across Europe. These materials must be collected from a hugely dispersed area covering private, municipal and business locations, shipped to dedicated locations, sorted and graded into the five main groups and then distributed to the paper and board companies to complete the transformation into useable and saleable finished products.

Traditionally, many recycling companies serve local government authorities and work under contract to them to collect and process waste materials. However, there has been significant growth in the business waste collection due to EU legislation around packaging and landfill taxes and directives. Governments across Europe have increased their commitment to recycling targets and increasingly are setting new demanding targets (33% household waste recycled by 2015 in UK). In addition, waste collection companies are providing wider services to businesses as the realities of the green agenda and legislations drive home the need for sustainable sources of material and environmental concerns.

As the demands for recycling grows and the industry becomes more complex and measured more investment is made, new technologies are being introduced, such as RFID tagging on waste bins that allow the pick-up trucks to identify the location, type and volume of recyclable waste and potentially move to volume based charging. Further new developments include allowing the public and businesses to inform collectors through a web browser that they have waste for collection, allowing companies to schedule and charge accordingly. Not only are statistics, targets and data vital for this new commercial world but it also drives greater efficiencies and changes business and consumer behaviour around waste management.

The modern waste collection and disposal operation is a complex and unique supply chain. Companies need powerful software solutions that can manage a wide range of customers’ assets (such as containers, skips, compactors and weighbridges), multiple depots, vehicles, subcontractors and sorting centers. They also need to capture accurate compliance data for legal and self billing purposes as well as deal with ad hoc and scheduled contracts with complex pricing rules. They need to have integrated systems that allow information to be instantly available to all people in the company and external customers and partners across the supply chain. They need routing systems and increasingly mobile in-cab systems that ensure collection vehicles take the optimum route during pick-ups to maximise cost efficiency and customer service.

Legislation constantly raises demands on the recycling industry, and we can certainly anticipate more legislation in the commercial arena, at the same time as growing cost pressures and fiercely intensive competition spell out the need for more streamlined processes and the need to optimize resources.  Additionally, the industry has exacting requirements such as the requirement to know and report the origins, composition and location of waste generators, recycling sites within the supply chain.

An Integrated Solution for Waste Management

It offers solutions for:

• Handling the relationships with the public community, businesses and government agencies on the collection side and with business customers on the supply side
• Handling chargeable and non-chargeable contracts for the collection, processing, storage and delivery of waste
• Complex pricing structures and contracts for services
• Handling purchases, orders, contracts and export management (eg. To China)
• Managing the process of disposal and recycling and reporting this inline with government legislation
• Managing drivers and vehicles for optimum efficiency and route management
• Automatic Data capture solutions and advanced KPI reporting
• Managing interfaces with weighbridge systems to integrate information directly into the business system for real-time visibility and management

IBS Enterprise supports the collection, management and distribution of waste with an integrated, flexible, scalable solution that meets both the needs of today’s marketplace and supports development well into the future.