The hard facts: recyclers need to help the U.S. paper industry survive in a competitive world, according to SP Newsprint's Dr. James Burke - Paper Consumer Focus

Recycling Today, Nov, 2002

Another little thing I'll mention is that the state of Georgia has asked our Dublin mill to do some unusual things, one of which is to begin to monitor floatable plastics in the effluent stream. Our processes take materials in and run them through either continuous pulpers or drum pulpers to get out the large materials. Then the smaller materials pass through various stages of screening and cleaners. Then you pick up the rejects and you concentrate them and incinerate them in a boiler. The problem that we have discovered is that very small particles of lighter weight plastics don't get trapped and continue in our effluent stream as floaters. We are just now beginning to look at these floaters.

Ultimately, if the recycled fiber streams we receive cannot minimize contaminants, we'll have to modify our own processes to accommodate more wood.

There is one last issue that I'm not especially qualified to comment on, but I do want to mention it because I think it's important. You'll hear throughout this conference a theme of, "Don't worry. The export market, especially the big C, will save the recovered paper market. And oh by the way, they take trash."

Well, I'd like you to remember these things. The export markets are volatile markets, as is the domestic market. And folks who buy fibers from our shores source worldwide. Without a good counter-balancing domestic market, I think you'll find that some very bright, shrewd buyers will be very aggressive.

The second thing is, the growth of the domestic paper industry is a solid indicator of the growth of the standard of living. Higher wages and a desire for better quality products are always a consequence of this. I'm going to tell you that the concept of supplying trash and substandard quality will become unacceptable. In the future, the concept of taking America's waste or excess trash, and putting it in the export markets, will become less and less palatable.

I have one final comment: Cash is king. We all run our businesses on cash. Well, maybe Enron didn't, but generally we all run our businesses on cash. I give the Asian buyers collectively credit; they are very skilled at working off other people's cash. Our viewpoint is that (because we also participate in the export market through our recycling company) you can afford and probably want to have some longer term receivables, but not if they are an excess percentage of your business, because you've got to keep paying your bills on a regular basis.

PAPER PROFITS

Quarterly results show improved results for some forest products companies, while others struggle in the current market. Read the details in an online sidebar at www. RecyclingToday.com.

If you have feedback on Dr. Burke's remarks, please let the editor know by e-mailing to btaylor@RecyclingToday.com.