Virtual Conference Focuses on North American End Markets for Recovered Fiber

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The WasteExpo Together Online 2020 virtual event held last week highlighted various factors that impact the recycled material end markets. The session focussed on the trends in North American end markets for recovered fiber.

Bill Moore of Moore & Associates noted that the importance of recovered fiber as a commodity in the domestic marketplace has witnessed significant improvement over the past several years. The pandemic has created demand shift in recycled plastics market. The generated volumes of OCC has seen tremendous surge, mainly due to increased use of corrugated boxes foe e-commerce deliveries.

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Meantime, the recycling rate continues to remains low, primarily due to huge drop in recovery rates for OCC from residential sector. The recovery rate of corrugated boxes from households currently stands at 40% to 45%. At the same time, the recovery rates from commercial sector are almost double of that, at around 90%, Moore noted.

The event noted that OCC exports have registered notable decline by 24% during the initial six-month period of the current year. The domestic consumption of mixed paper by the U.S. mills soared by 4% in H1 this year, compared with the previous year. The domestic OCC demand was up by almost 6% in the first five months of 2020. Going forward, OCC demand will outpace supply, Moore added.