The European Recovered Paper Council (ERPC) reported a 71.7 per cent paper recycling rate for the year 2012 across the countries where its members are active. Altogether, 13 European countries reached a recycling rate of over 70 per cent last year, while the number of countries where less than 60 per cent were recycled decreased from twelve in 2011 to ten, the organisation announced on Thursday.
The amount of paper collected and recycled was virtually stable in 2012 at 58 million tonnes, ERPC said. A share of 9.4 million tonnes or 16 per cent of the total was recycled in third countries, "outside the commitment region of EU-27 plus Norway and Switzerland." This was a slight increase compared to 2011, when 9.2 million tonnes were exported from the ERPC region for recycling.