Every two years the European Paper Recycling Council (EPRC) rewards the best, brightest and most innovative paper recycling projects from across the continent with the prestigious European Paper Recycling Award. This year’s award ceremony, which took place on October 18, is jointly hosted by MEP Ms. Simona Bonafè (Italy), rapporteur of the Circular Economy dossier and Ms. Inés Ayala Sender (Spain).
Favini, a leading global producer of packaging for the luxury and fashion industries, topped the Innovative Technologies and R&D category for its Remake project, a ground-breaking process of using recycled leather to produce paper. Aspapel, the Spanish pulp & paper association headed up the Information and Education category with its creative ‘Blue Birdies’ project targeted towards raising awareness on the separate collection of paper across municipalities in Spain.
“Today’s winners are the pioneers that are paving the way the European paper recycling value chain is advancing paper recycling to the next level” says Lisa Kretschmann, Chairperson of the EPRC
“Whether it be inventive companies or municipalities willing to ‘step outside the box’, their role is crucial in helping the value chain reach its 74% recycling rate by 2020.” says Ulrich Leberle, Secretary of the EPRC/Raw Materials Director at CEPI
These two projects stood out from the crowd in terms of their originality, innovativeness, measured achievement and ability to be reproduced across Europe. Other commended entries which also scored highly include:
Information and Education category:
• IMPACTPapeRec, a Horizon 2020 funded project on boosting separate collection of paper
• Comieco’s (Italy) online contest “#iorompolescatole” (in English: “I break boxes”) on raising awareness of recycling paper & board packaging from e-commerce
• SCA’s Circular Economy project entitled “Closing the loop for paper hand towels”
Innovative Technologies and R&D category:
• Lucart (Italy): separating cellulose from beverage cartons to be reused for tissue production
• Paptic (Finland): a light & durable material based on renewable and recyclable wood fibres
Learn more on how the EPRC is improving best practices in paper recycling and helping Europe reach its 74% paper recycling rate on the dedicated website here. Full information on all entries can be consulted here.
For more information, please contact Ulrich Leberle, Secretary of the EPRC/Raw Materials Director at CEPI by email or by phone on (+32) 262 7 49 23.
For press related enquiries, please contact Ben Kennard, Press Manager at CEPI by email or by phone on (+32) 487 39 21 82.