ERPC declares 2013 European Paper Recycling Awards winners

Submitted by: The Two Sides Team October 7, 2013

The European Recovered Paper Council (ERPC) has announced the winners of the fourth European Paper Recycling awards.

The European Recovered Paper Council (ERPC) has announced the winners of the fourth European Paper Recycling awards. The well-attended ceremony took place at the European Parliament and was hosted by ALDE MEP Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, who underlined the importance of recycling in today's society.

First winner in the category Technology Improvement and R&D was Voith Paper GmbH & Co. KG with a new technology called LowEnergyFlotation (LEF). "This is an innovative technique that significantly reduces the energy requirements needed to remove printing ink from paper fibres", explained product manager Reinhard Bluhm.

The newly developed injectors are at the heart of the LEF. Together with the modified pumps, they enable energy consumption to be reduced by up to 50 percent in the flotation. Subsequently, paper mills not only save energy but also achieve significant financial savings. The LEF technology has already been applied to more than ten systems worldwide.

The winner of the category Information and Education was the Alcorc'n municipality in Spain. Their project improves paper and board collection by distributing paper bins in all schools in the district. The project aims to increase both the amount of paper collected as well as environmental awareness among children. "In the end, more than 15,000 children will know how to recycle paper and will have learned the importance of recycling", said Alcorcon's waste collection officer Susana Mozo, speaking at the ceremony.

In her speech ERPC Chairperson Beatrice Klose stressed the role of the recycling awards. "The European paper recycling awards recognise innovative approaches to paper recycling, which is a daily act, familiar to all. It is our pleasure to highlight a few of those that merit wider recognition and visibility", she added.

Three more entries were commended by the jury: International Paper Kwidzyn for its entry 'Seventh Heaven for Newspapers' (Information and Education category), Lucart Group for Natural Project: Tissue paper from beverage cartons' and Reculiner bvba for their work on "Sustainable paper release liner recycling" (Technology Improvement and R&D category).

This article appeared on the Recyclingportal website.

Share this story