Europe recycles over 70% of paper in 2011
Europe recycled more than 70% of paper in 2011, according to new figures from the European Recovered Paper Council (ERPC)
The organisation said that this shows a 1.5% increase on the previous year’s result.
The ERPC annual monitoring report for 2011 shows that 13 EU member states now recycle more than 70% of their paper, although 12 states maintain a recycling rate of less than 60%.
The UK has proved to be one of the top performers in terms of paper recycling, with a rate of 78.7% for 2011.
The report, called European Declaration on Paper Recycling, also notes that, whilst the recycling rate increased in 2011, the amount of paper collected remained the same in comparison to previous years at 58m tonnes. The statistics show that paper is the EU’s most recycled material.
Launching the European Declaration on Paper Recycling, the European Commissioner for Environment Janez Potočnik, praised, what he called, the exemplary action taken by the paper value chain during the first 10 years of voluntary commitments.
