Recently, I saw that a researcher of an Economic Research Institute outside the industry published an article on China's paper industry. Based on the idea of "the more truth is debated, the more clear it 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 online encyclopedia is "generally refers to the recyclable renewable resources discarded in production and life". From this explanation, we can see that "use waste regeneration" is the circular life chain of paper, "waste" is only the state of paper at a certain time point. Therefore, "waste paper is a resource and is by no means equal to garbage" is not only the consensus of people in the industry, It is also the consensus of the public.

　　Waste paper papermaking helps to reduce the cutting of native trees and reduce greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions (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 native plant pulping and papermaking). It is called "urban forest", and waste paper has become a strategic resource competed by many countries.

　　Developed countries such as the United States, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom attach great importance to the resource utilization of waste paper and import a certain amount of waste paper in varying degrees every year according to needs.

　　Due to the imbalance of regional economic development and consumption level, there are great differences in waste paper resources among different regions. It is particularly obvious that paper products dominated by paper packaging materials follow export commodities from large manufacturing countries to large consuming 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 largely belongs to the return and rebalancing of resources, rather than the so-called "waste transfer".

　　At present, the inclusion content of imported waste paper in China is limited to less than 0.5%, which is the most stringent standard in the world. Many waste paper meeting this condition are cartons directly recovered from supermarkets and edge cutting materials directly recovered from cardboard and carton factories. They are high-quality papermaking 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 not only make effective use of imported waste paper, but also eliminate environmental risks.

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

　　Before discussing this issue, let's briefly review the history of Chinese papermaking and see how the modern Chinese paper industry "stands up"?

　　So someone 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 "stand up"?

　　In the era of manual papermaking, China's paper industry has indeed led the world in more than 1000 years of history, but after modern times, manual papermaking has been gradually replaced by machine papermaking, and China's paper industry has lagged far behind 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 is far from keeping up with the development of manufacturing industry. High-grade packaging paper depends on import, which not only consumes a lot of foreign exchange, but also the national industry related to the national economy and the people's livelihood is stuck by foreign countries.

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

　　The huge production and living needs of the country and people urgently call on China's paper industry to embark on the road of rejuvenation 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 at the top of the world's paper industry.

　　In this process, waste paper is indispensable.

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

　　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 excellent domestic paper-making enterprises introduced international advanced equipment and used imported waste paper and domestic waste paper as the main raw materials (especially a large number of waste paper with high content of primary fiber such as American waste) to produce high-quality and low-cost packaging paper, which completely replaced imported paper, met the needs of domestic people's livelihood, greatly reduced packaging costs and helped "made in China" to the world, This is a major contribution made by China's modern paper industry to the national economy.

　　Looking around the world, at present, every industrial power in the world has a strong paper industry (no one relies on imported paper to meet their own needs). Therefore, 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. No country is willing to establish its basic raw material industry on the basis of importing from other countries.

　　Moreover, the paper industry has a long industrial chain and covers a wide range. According to statistics, in 2017, the number of employees in China's paper and paper products industry above Designated Size reached 1.271 million, and the number of relevant upstream and downstream industrial chains reached millions, solving a large number of jobs for the country.

　　As the saying goes, "a skillful woman cannot cook without rice". If there is a lack of papermaking raw materials, it can not be solved by papermaking enterprises with good equipment and technology.

　　We can imagine that if the shortage of raw materials intensifies, the possible vicious circle of the industry is:

　　Poor quality and expensive waste paper raw materials = >

　　Quality decline and price rise of domestic packaging paper = >

　　Overall packaging cost rise = >

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

　　Affect national taxes and employment;

　　At the same time, foreign papermaking raw materials are of good quality and cheap price = >

　　Imported paper flows into the Chinese market = >

　　Serious impact on China's paper industry = >

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

　　At that time, not only China's paper industry will be hit, but also relevant upstream and downstream industrial chains such as China's packaging industry and China's manufacturing industry will be affected, thus affecting the stability of the national economy, residents' consumption and employment.

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

　　The development achievements of China's paper industry are hard won and deserve our good treasure.

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