Many Indian paper mills that have traditionally depended on virgin paper are increasingly inclined towards using recycled paper, according to news sources.
The Indian paper industry is growing at about 7% per year, requiring about 7,00,000 additional tonnes of raw material every year. Add to this the fact that technology has significantly improved so that mills can get cleaner paper from recycled paper, which was not possible earlier. These developments have contributed to the industry increasingly reliant on recycled and waste paper for their raw material.
For instance, two paper mills – Suuburaj Papers and Servalakshmi Paper Mills – have each set up a 300-T a day plant for producing printing and writing paper using recycled paper, in Tamilnadu
In the west, many paper mills have set up capacities such that they can use about 30% of their capacities for recycled paper as raw materials. Let’s hope these trends result in Indian companies reaching that status as well.