The raw material used for recycled paper production is sourced as close as possible to our mills to reduce the environmental impact of transports. A great majority of the recovered paper we use is post-consumer waste, and we support the collection of used paper and board products. The availability and quality of recycled fibres is continuously declining due to digitalisation and we at Metsä Tissue foresee the tissue fibre balance to move increasingly towards fresh fibres in the future.
Recycled fibre
We use recycled fibre whenever it is suitable considering the quality and product safety requirements of the final product. However, the availability and quality of recycled fibres is constantly declining.
The future of recycled fibre
We believe that in the long run the recycled papers are more suitable for non-hygiene end uses and should be channeled to uses where they will tie carbon for longer, replace fossil materials and where quality requirements are lower, such as inner layers of non-food packaging and biobased insulating materials.
"The production of fresh fibre tissue paper is materially more efficient than recycled tissue paper production, because the recycling process incurs a 40 % yield loss from cleaning the recycled fibers. With increasingly strict regulations in the hygiene sector, we anticipate a growing reliance on fresh fibres from sustainable sources. For example recycled packaging board is more effective raw material when it is repurposed for non-food packaging, as the cleaning requirements are less strict than those of hygienic paper."
Dr. Alexander Deutschle, Director, Research and Development, from Soft to the touch and sustainable – why northern wood makes for high-quality responsible toilet and kitchen paper