At present, the pulp-making processes used by some enterprises are criticized by industry experts as "de facto imported foreign waste" due to problems such as failing to meet environmental standards, prominent safety hazards, and unstable product quality. Many experts call for further strengthening of the supervision and regulation of imported recycled paper pulp, continuously improving the regulatory system, optimizing the regulatory process, and enhancing regulatory efficiency, so that the revised "Recycled Paper Pulp" national standard can truly become a "safety net" and "firewall" to protect industrial and ecological security.
Comparison of quality of imported recycled dry-milled pulp
Thekraft process is questioned for hindering the green transition.
According to the latest statistics published by the General Administration of Customs, the total import of recycled paper pulp in 2024 was about 4.14 million tons, including about 3.6 million tons of recycled paper pulp produced by the dry grinding (dry process) method, accounting for about 3.8% of the total domestic pulp.
Recently, at the expert seminar on the "National Standard for Recycled Pulp" organized by the Beijing City Law Association's Environmental Resources Law Research Society, Academician Jin Yongchang of the International Wood Science Academy and a professor at Nanjing Forestry University emphasized that the core defect of the dry process pulping method is its inability to effectively remove pollutants. "The dry process only mechanically crushes waste paper, and it is difficult to separate harmful substances such as plastic fragments, adhesives, microorganisms, and heavy metals in waste paper. The essence of this pulp is 'foreign garbage', and raw materials carrying pollutants, once introduced into the country, will repeatedly accumulate pollutants through the domestic circulation, which will hinder the green transformation of the entire industry in the long run."
Shi Huixiang, the former vice dean of the Institute of Water Environment at Zhejiang University and the former director of the Research Office of Environmental Impact Assessment, introduced that the production process of making paper from waste paper is mainly divided into two stages: pulp making and paper making. The process characteristics of the so-called dry grinding method for再生paper pulp are that it does not use water, but relies only on mechanical crushing, which also loses the opportunity to remove pollutants through steps such as hydraulic crushing, slag removal, screening, and concentration. Plastic fragments, microorganisms, heavy metals (such as lead, cadmium), organic pollutants and other common pollutants in waste paper raw materials can not be effectively separated in the dry grinding process.
Professor Wang Zhijie from the Papermaking and Pulp Major of Shaanxi University of Science and Technology stated that dry grinding pulp not only has problems with high ash content, fines, and adhesives, but also contains many uncrushed foreign objects. The existing National Standard GB/T 43393—2023 for Recycled Pulp for Papermaking uses a flat screen with a hole diameter of 10mm to determine the coarse residue rate, "The strength index is also very low, and the threshold for entry is too low. This inferior recycled pulp should be kept out of the country. If it is released, and there is no microbial testing, the consequences will be unimaginable (many people will take advantage of the situation)."
Jin Yongchang believes that under the guidance of the "double carbon" goal, the paper industry is transforming towards greening, digitization, and intelligence. He suggests that leading enterprises in the industry, especially foreign-funded enterprises, should actively transform to more environmentally friendly wet processes. "This itself is a 'back-pressure mechanism' to promote industrial upgrading."
Reporters have found that since October this year, relevant state departments have issued a series of regulatory policies, building a multi-level regulatory system from declaration requirements, index restrictions to standard revisions.
On October 9, the General Administration of Customs issued the Announcement on the Declaration Requirements for imported Recycled Pulp; on October 17, the General Administration of Customs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Commerce, and the State Administration for Market Regulation, among six departments, jointly issued the Announcement on the Standardization of Supervision and Administration of imported Recycled Pulp and the Requirements for Key Indicators of Recycled Pulp, further standardizing the supervision and administration of imported recycled pulp; on October 31, the plan for the revision of the National Standard for Recycled Pulp was approved and issued, and the National Technical Committee for Paper Industry Standardization (hereinafter referred to as the "Paper Standardization Committee") is responsible for organizing the revision of the standard; on November 14, the Paper Standardization Committee held a seminar on the revision of the National Standard for Recycled Pulp, and discussed the revision plan for the National Standard for Recycled Pulp.
The General Administration of Customs has clearly required in the above-mentioned announcement that the consignee of imported goods or its agent shall indicate in the remarks column of the customs declaration form the process used to produce the recycled paper pulp, i.e., "dry method" or "wet method", when申报the import of recycled paper pulp.
Real investigation of the wet process for regenerating pulp
In stark contrast to the dry-process technology is the wet-process pulp technology.
On November 23, the reporter from the Poster News Group visited the production project of Zhejiang Jingxing Paper Co., Ltd. in Malaysia with a group. On the spot, huge factory buildings were piled with baled waste paper raw materials that could not be seen at a glance, and these raw materials were being converted into recycled pulp through a series of work processes.
The on-site staff introduced that the waste paper raw material is sent into the hydraulic pulper by the chain plate machine, and the metal, plastic, sand and stone and other impurities are preliminarily separated. The whole pulping system includes hydraulic pulper, rope cutting machine, high concentration heavy medium sand remover, impurity separator, cylinder screen and other equipment. Among them, the impurity discharge rate of heavy medium sand remover is 0.2%, the rope cutting process discharge rate is 0.3%, the cylinder screen discharge rate is 1.0%, and the high concentration heavy medium sand remover discharge rate is 0.2%. Then, the pulp enters the coarse screen system composed of four stages of external flow pressure screen, which further removes the difficult-to-pulverize and non-fiber impurities, and the discharge rate of this stage is 0.5%. The low concentration system is composed of four stages of low concentration sand remover, which uses centrifugal force to remove sand and stone, and the discharge rate is 1.5%. The discharge rate of the following fine screen system is also 1.5%, further purifying the pulp.
The reporter saw on the spot that a pool of waste, the size of a basketball court, was piled with plastic bag fragments, beverage bottle shards, aluminum cans, and other impurities, which were transported by a grab bucket onto a conveyor belt and eventually converted into steam energy in a solid waste incinerator.
In the pulp mill, the pulp is evenly distributed by a hydraulic flow box, then undergoes multiple processes such as dewatering, vacuum water absorption, roll pressing, and air cushion drying, and is dried and sterilized under high-temperature steam of nearly 200 degrees Celsius, eventually forming dry and sterile pulp boards. After the packaging and stacking are completed, the small packages of pulp boards are weighed and tied with iron wire, and then enter the next link.
The on-site technicians said that the wet regeneration process for pulp adopts steps such as hydraulic pulping, sand removal, pressure screen, concentration and pulp sheet making, which is consistent with the original wood pulp making process, to achieve multi-stage impurity removal, with a total slag discharge rate of about 2.5% to 5.0%, and the residual impurities in the pulp are below 0.1%. Moreover, the high-temperature drying process ensures that the pulp sheets meet the sanitary standards.
The on-site technicians introduced that the wet process adopted by the production line includes key processes such as hydraulic pulp refining, sand removal, pressure screen, concentration, and pulp sheet making. The industrialized pulp-making process is consistent with the traditional log pulp production. This recycled pulp manufacturing process, through a multi-stage impurity removal system, can achieve a total slag discharge rate of about 2.5% to 5.0%, with residual impurities in the finished pulp below 0.1%. At the same time, the pulp sheet achieved effective sterilization in the high-temperature drying process of nearly 200 degrees Celsius, fully meeting the relevant sanitary standards.
Jingxing Malaysia Holdings Co., Ltd.'s senior advisor, Chen Jinquan, told the media that the paper-making project is a key project under strict supervision by the Malaysian Environmental Agency and has passed the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Currently, the project undergoes independent environmental management audits every 4 months and has a 24-hour online smoke and wastewater monitoring system, as well as annual permits for drainage, water intake, and solid waste incineration.
Experts in the industry call for stricter standards for "Recycled Paper Pulp".
In the view of Chang Jiwen, associate director of the Institute of Resources and Environmental Policy at the Development Research Center of the State Council, China's environmental protection is still in a critical stage, and the import of recycled paper pulp "should not lower environmental protection standards for any reason". He emphasized that if the National Standard for Recycled Paper Pulp (GB/T 43393—2023) is revised, the relevant environmental protection and sanitary防疫 indicators "should not regress".
The existing national standard "Recycled Pulp" GB/T 43393-2023 leaves a certain development space for dry grinding pulp manufacturers," Jin Yongcan believes. The current national standard has a low requirement for fiber strength and no microbial testing indicators. Due to the inability to regulate the quality of waste paper from abroad, combined with the lack of ESG management system in some enterprises, substandard waste paper may enter the country after dry grinding processing.
Several experts at the meeting said that the current national standard for "Recycled Paper Pulp" has started to be revised, and it will be further improved in terms of definition, process control, and quality identification to better adapt to the industry's improvement and regulatory needs.
Chang Jiwen also mentioned that China is a major importer of recycled paper pulp in the world. For the recent shortage of pulp raw materials in the domestic paper industry, which involves the security and supply of the supply chain, it should be paid attention to. It can be alleviated by supporting the import of legal pulp, expanding the pulp-making capacity domestically, and so on.
For the imported recycled pulp produced by the "dry process" technology that meets the requirements, it should be allowed to be imported as long as it meets the spot check requirements of the national customs, said Chang Jiwen, adding that at present, some leading enterprises in China have established a compliant raw material supply chain overseas, and the continuous improvement of the domestic waste paper recycling system is also gradually reducing the industry's dependence on imported raw materials. The paper industry should continue to maintain a big picture of ecological civilization construction, establish an imported supply chain that is both compliant and efficient, and improve the comprehensive competitiveness of enterprises in the aspects of green, low-carbon, recycling and sanitary.
