Tissue grading has been a focus of the waste paper industry since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic forced much of the workforce to leave office buildings and make a radical shift to remote work. Grades such as used cardboard have increased in volume rapidly with the spread of e-commerce, but the segregated generation of office paper (SOP) in particular is feeling the opposite effect.
With fewer people consistently working in offices and longer distance schools, tissue grade recyclers are struggling to gather supplies, resulting in higher demand and higher premiums. It got higher and the question arose of what would happen to the factory if power generation continued to slow down.
recall
Mark Campbell Productions
Kari Talvola, Ysabelle Dupuis, Kathy DeLano and Ron Gable will be speaking at the Commodity Focus: High Grades session at the 2022 PPRC on October 19th.
At the 2022 Paper and Plastic Recycling Conference in Chicago on October 19-20, a panel of tissue-grade experts gathered to align their operations with the impact of the pandemic and market volatility. we talked about it. The discussion, moderated by Kali Tarvora, president and CEO of Fiber Trade, Inc. in Burlingame, Calif., included Kathy Delano, vice president of sales for Texas Recycling, Inc. in Dallas. was included. Ysabelle Dupuis, supply and logistics director for her Kruger Recycling in Quebec. Ontario’s Ron Gable, senior vice president of performance and operations at Proshred Security and Redishred Capital Corp., said:
Of the supply problem at the Kruger factory, Dupuy said, “This was definitely unlike anything we’d seen before.” The factory kept running, so we had to provide materials, and that was the hardest part.”
According to DeLano, in the early stages of the pandemic, the paper packaging side did not see a significant generational decline, but as printers began to lose workers, jobs were not completed and waste paper became increasingly available. It became difficult.
“at first, [printers] their thesis was ok [because] Factories run out of stock,” she said. “For the last year or so many of our printers have been on quota from factories. They’re not getting paper as fast as they need to. They live by the sword. They waits for work to come in and then starts ordering paper, now it can take 2-5 months.
“This is what I have experienced with my customers. [is] I’m just struggling to get the paper in so I can print the job so I can collect the scrap [and] send it to the factory. It’s a big, big cycle. ”
The problem isn’t that power generation has slowed, but rather the pace at which supplies are depleted. Gable suggested that sales volumes were down even before the pandemic. This is a challenge that the industry has begun to face. His on-site mobile paper shredder in his business, he said, from 2009 to his 2019, the volume per stop was down 40% of his.
The combination of office building closures and paper generation from home offices seems to have diverted much of the quality supply to municipal flows.
“We were all in the same boat, so it was easier to adapt to COVID than to adapt post-COVID,” says Gable. “One of the hirings we made for him was to continue to emphasize the security aspect to businesses: ‘Home Let’s pick up the paper from his office and put it in the secure waste stream. 』
change with the times
While market volatility over the past two years has resulted in many changes to operations, panelists agreed that it has also provided opportunities for improvement, especially with regard to safety.
DeLano said Texas Recycling used to take cardboard, cans, newspapers, metal and more to the streets through a buyback program, but decided to suspend that practice during the pandemic due to public exposure. Did. As lockdown restrictions eased, the company limited its buybacks to cardboard, newspapers and cans.
“In some ways that have improved our efficiency, we can use that workforce in other parts of the factory and work on cross-training,” she said. , we practiced all safety protocols: wearing masks, social distancing… we were considered an essential business, so we went to work every day, but we survived I think we did a pretty good job.”
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Mr. Gable was also proud of how his company handled the situation, not only in terms of ensuring an adequate supply of paper, but also in terms of how it looked after its employees. I said yes. This was a daunting task for mobile shredder operators who often travel to hospitals and nursing homes.
“Workers who come to work, hop in taxis, drive to different types of businesses, pick up their trash, and the next day wear hazmat suits and go to hospitals or other care homes that we manage. There will be workers,” he said. “We had to adjust accordingly.”
He added that other than truck drivers who can’t work remotely, the company has encouraged its sales and administrative staff to work from home, which has made the business more efficient.
Working remotely has certainly not been a positive dynamic as it has to do with security of supply. Many in the high-grade recovered paper industry tend to agree. This was important as the pandemic progressed.
“There was a lot of emphasis on keeping the team strong and healthy and making sure they built a group sense of wanting to keep working every day, but it probably wasn’t enough,” she said. I’ve seen staff members of staff leave for other jobs in many companies, so my key takeaway is [not taking] as a matter of course, your staff will go to work 8 [a.m.] up to 5 [p.m.] And I think it’s work. they will have to do it. It has to be community. You have to feel held together.
“I just put that team together and everyone worked together to get it done, so it was easier to make sure we could supply the factory. ”
Impact on quality
While high-grade supplies remain a concern, so is incoming material quality, with both Dupuis and DeLano reporting instances of poor-quality paper in the stream.
“It’s more colorful when you look at sorted office paper,” said Dupuis. “There’s a lot more mixed into it. Sometimes you find more coated paper on SOP. I think that’s the reality now.”
“Many of our customers struggle to find paperboard or glossy materials, so they get paper from every crevice they can find,” added DeLano. “We saw a lot more thermal-mechanical pulp paper. … It’s cheaper paper for printers, but it’s also a little less valuable. As a recycler, we’ve seen that increase significantly. “
Some factories still accept low-quality materials from recyclers, Delano said.
“We just need to know which factory to send it to,” she said. “It can still go into tissue grade. , they’re taking ingredients they probably wouldn’t have taken before.”
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Low quality is also unfavorable to mills due to the high cost of the chemicals and starches and other materials needed to make paper. Dupuy expects many factories to return to traditional formulas, but a group of factories, including Kruger, are considering alternative grades to avoid complications should a similar supply crisis strike again. ing.
“If we needed X tons at some point, we had no choice but to be a little more generous than before,” says Dupuis. “We’ve all been in this industry for far too long, but we didn’t realize that when you don’t have enough material, or too much material, something always comes back. There is never too much, always not enough, and this is where we need to hold our view.”
“We’ve made a lot of very positive changes,” said Gable.
what’s next?
With remote work not going away and many people spending less on travel and entertainment due to the state of the U.S. economy, panelists are already seeing fewer trips away from home. As noted, the high-grade market will continue to suffer. sector.
“It’s not now that generations are collapsing, it’s now. It’s happening now,” Dupuis said. “It’s no secret that high school should be called the dying grade. It’s something that’s slowly getting out of hand. … Are you ready to have brown paper towels at home? We’re not there yet. But it must come.
“When will it stop?
Gable is less cynical, pointing out that when he got into the shredder business in 1992, there was talk of a paperless office. But now, 30 years later, offices have more printers than ever before, he suggests. It doesn’t mean that the momentum of the upper grade generation hasn’t declined, and it may not be necessary to prepare for the collapse of the grade level yet.
“We are still producing paper,” he said. “But I think it’s slowing down. It’s already slowing down. I think we’ve experienced a rapid slowdown. is planning to become [price cycle], but we don’t plan for the low to be anywhere near what it used to be. ”
