Recently, I saw an article about China's paper industry published by a researcher of an Economic Research Institute outside the industry. In line with the idea of "the more the truth is debated, the clearer the truth is", as a Chinese papermaker who has worked in the paper industry for many years, I also talked about my personal views.

　　Is waste paper really "waste"?

　　The explanation of waste paper in the Internet encyclopedia is "generally refers to the recyclable and renewable resources discarded in production and life". From this explanation, we can see that "use waste recycling" is the life chain of paper, and "waste" is just the state of paper at a certain point in time. Therefore, "waste paper is a resource, not equal to garbage" is not only the consensus of the industry, but also the consensus of the society The consensus of the public.

　　Papermaking with waste paper can help to reduce the cutting of native trees, reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and pollutants (using 1 ton of waste paper can replace 4-7 cubic meters of native wood, and the overall pollutant production is more than 50% lower than that of pulping and papermaking with native plants), which is called "urban forest", and waste paper has become a strategic resource for many countries.

　　The United States, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and other developed countries attach great importance to the recycling of waste paper, and import a certain amount of waste paper according to the needs.

　　Due to the imbalance of economic development and consumption level among regions, there are huge differences in waste paper resources among different regions. It is particularly obvious that paper products mainly made of paper packaging materials follow the trend of export commodities from big manufacturing countries to big consumption countries (taking China as an example, it is estimated that the annual export of paper and paperboard materials with products in recent years is about 20 million tons).

　　This part of waste paper resources can only be recycled abroad, and then returned to China in the form of international trade. Therefore, the international trade of waste paper, to a large extent, belongs to the return and rebalancing of resources, rather than the so-called "garbage transfer".

　　At present, China limits the inclusion content of imported waste paper to less than 0.5%, which is the most stringent standard in the world. Many of the waste paper that meets this condition are cartons directly recycled from supermarkets and trimming materials directly recycled from cardboard and carton factories, which are high-quality paper-making raw materials.

　　China's customs also has strict inspection and quarantine, fumigation and disinfection procedures, as well as the equipment, technology and management of advanced paper enterprises, which make the imported waste paper be effectively utilized and eliminate environmental risks.

　　Can "Chinese consumption" and "made in China" rely on imported paper?

　　Before we talk about this issue, let's first briefly review the history of China's paper industry and see how the modern Chinese paper industry "stands up"?

　　In this way, some people may ask, "papermaking" is clearly the "four great inventions" that Chinese people are proud of. People on earth know that we were ahead of the world more than 1900 years ago. How can we still have the problem of "standing up"?

　　In the era of manual paper making, China's paper industry is indeed leading the world in the history of more than 1000 years. However, after modern times, manual paper making has been gradually replaced by machine paper making, and China's paper industry has lagged far behind the developed countries.

　　You should remember that in the early stage of reform and opening up, China's manufacturing industry began to flourish, but the development of China's paper industry was far behind the development of manufacturing industry. High grade packaging paper had to rely on imports, which not only consumed a lot of foreign exchange, but also affected the national economy and people's livelihood. It was not easy for China's national industry to be stuck by foreign countries.

　　"China has first-class products, but it has third rate packaging", which was widely spread in those years, also deeply hurt the hearts of Chinese paper makers.

　　The huge production and living needs of the country and people urgently call for the revival of China's paper industry as soon as possible. With the strong support of the state, people of insight in the industry work hard. After more than 30 years of unremitting efforts, China's paper industry once again stands on the top of the world's paper industry.

　　In this process, waste paper has made great contribution to papermaking.

　　As we all know, China is a country short of resources, especially the serious shortage of wood fiber resources, which is far from supporting the demand of China's paper industry.

　　In the 1970s and 1980s, China mainly used straw pulp and other fiber raw materials, with poor quality and serious pollution. At that time, the paper industry also left a bad impression on everyone.

　　After the 1990s, a number of domestic excellent With the introduction of international advanced equipment, Xiuzhou paper company uses imported waste paper and domestic waste paper as the main raw materials (especially the waste paper with high content of primary fiber such as American waste) to produce packaging paper with high quality and low price, which can completely replace the imported paper, meet the needs of domestic people's livelihood, greatly reduce the packaging cost, and help "made in China" to go to the world. This is China's modern paper industry They have made great contributions to the national economy.

　　Looking around the world, at present, every industrial power in the world has a strong paper industry (no one depends on imported paper to meet their own needs), and the paper industry is listed as one of the major pillar industries of various countries.

　　China also lists the paper industry as the basic raw material industry, and no country is willing to build its own basic raw material industry on the basis of importing from other countries.

　　Moreover, the paper industry chain is long and covers a wide range. According to statistics, in 2017, China's paper and paper products industries above Designated Size had 1271000 employees, and the related upstream and downstream industrial chains had as many as millions of people, solving a large number of employment problems for the country.

　　If there is a lack of raw materials for paper-making, it can not be solved by using good equipment and technology.

　　We can imagine that if the shortage of raw materials becomes more and more serious, the vicious circle of the industry may be as follows:

　　Poor quality and high price of waste paper raw materials

　　Domestic packaging paper quality decline, price rise

　　Overall packaging costs rise

　　Rising prices of various consumer goods and logistics / declining competitiveness of China's manufacturing industry

　　Affect the national tax revenue and employment;

　　At the same time, the quality of foreign paper-making raw materials is good and the price is cheap

　　Import paper into Chinese market

　　Serious impact on China's paper industry

　　Gradually back to the early stage of reform and opening up, mainly imported paper.

　　At that time, China's paper industry will not be the only one to be hit. China's packaging industry, China's manufacturing industry and other related upstream and downstream industrial chains will be affected, thus affecting the stability of the national economy, residents' consumption and employment.

　　Take history as a mirror, we can know the rise and fall.

　　The development achievements of China's paper industry are hard won, and we should cherish them.

　　I believe that with the joint efforts of all of you, China paper industry, which has lasted for nearly 2000 years, will usher in a brighter future, continue to benefit mankind and serve a better life!