Six news, mixed paper grades may be condensed into three

By Ken McEntee
The Paper Stock Report
February 19, 2016
 
A proposal to condense six old newspaper (ONP) and mixed paper grade categories into three new grades will be considered in April by the Paper Division of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI). If the Paper Division approves the changes in ISRI’s Scrap Specifications Circular at ISRI’s annual convention, in Las Vegas, a subsequent vote by ISRI’s board of directors could put the new grades immediately into effect, said Sandy Rosen, president of ISRI’s Paper Stock Industries (PSI) Chapter and co-owner of Great Lakes Recycling, Roseville, Mich.
PSI members voted overwhelmingly in favor of the grade changes at a special Paper Specifications Summit, held this month in New Orleans.
At the summit, members voted to eliminate ONP grades 6-8 and mixed paper grades 1-3. In their places, PSI voted to create three new grades defined as follows:

• Sorted Clean News (SCN) - Consists of sorted newspapers from source separated collection programs, converters, drop-off centers and paper drives containing the normal percentages of rotogravure colored and coated sections. May contain inserts that would normally be included in the newspaper in the proper proportions. Grade must be free of excessive ink, brown grades and non-paper material. Prohibitive Materials: ½ of 1%; Outthrows plus Prohibitives may not exceed 1%; Other papers may not exceed 10%

• Sorted Residential Papers (SRP) - Consists of sorted newspapers, junk mail, magazines, printing and writing papers and other acceptable papers generated from residential programs (such as residential household and apartment collections and drop-off centers) sorted and processed at a recycling facility. Material should be free of containerboard & brown grades {OCC, Kraft bags, boxboard and Kraft carrier board}. Prohibitive materials may not exceed 2% (Wax/foil papers, other non-paper material); Outthrows may not exceed 3% (corrugated, Kraft bags/board, boxboard, poly-coated).

• Mixed Paper (MP) - Consists of all paper and paperboard of various qualities not limited to the type of fiber content, sorted and processed at a recycling facility. Prohibitive materials may not exceed 2%. (Wax coated, foil papers, other non—paper material); Outthrows may not exceed 3%.

Grade No. 9 – Over-issue News – was not discussed at the summit and will remain intact. Specific grade numbers were not assigned to the proposed new grades.
Although the three new grades received overwhelming support, one Southeastern broker whose company markets ONP both through MRFs and paper collection centers, said the establishment of a single news grade is a mistake.
“Sorted Residential Papers is not a news grade because it has junk mail and all kinds of other paper in there, and only about 10 percent of all the old news generation in this country is going to meet the specification for Sorted Clean News,” he said. “Most MRFs can’t pack that grade. So what news grade that falls short of Sorted Clean News are we going to be shipping over to China?”
While the changes to the news and mixed paper grades received overwhelming support (see voting results), measures that would have amended the definition of old corrugated containers (OCC) - Grade 11 - and create a new OCC grade were met with strong opposition. The proposed new grade, which would have been called OCCB, would have recognized a lower quality “B” grade of OCC beneath Grade 11 . PSI members voted it down 25-4.
A proposal to amend the current Grade 11 OCC definition to specify a maximum of 30% “offshore OCC” content was withdrawn by the PSI Specifications Committee before the vote.
The changes, which resulted from almost a year of discussions, were proposed by the Specifications Committee. The committee worked to develop changes to the paper specifications since an initial summit was held in Dallas in February 2015.
Specifications Committee Chairwoman Kari Talvola, managing director of Fibre Trade Inc., Burlingame, Calif., said discussions about grade changes involved “a lot of compromise among ourselves and a lot of heated discussions, but our goal was to create something that is actually being traded today in our industry.”
Changing supply sources, most notably the growing implementation of single stream residential collection systems, was the impetus to consider changes in grade definitions. Attendees at the Dallas summit discussed whether a new grade should be established for newspaper generated by single stream MRFs, or whether ONP and mixed paper grades should be combined in some way.
The next 11 months of discussions culminated in the Specifications Committee proposals that were voted on in New Orleans.
“It’s my opinion that what has happened over the last decade or two is that changes in collection methods have brought down (recovered paper) quality,” Rosen said in opening the summit. “It is a downward cycle but it is a trend that can be reversed. If higher quality material becomes more valuable, then processors will want to invest in upgrading their material.”
The ISRI Specifications for paper and other recyclable commodities are guidelines that help suppliers and end users agree on the quality and content of the materials they buy and sell. Most end users have their own specific standards based on their specific needs.
The most controversial discussion at the summit involved the proposals to add a lesser-quality “OCCB” grade and to amend OCC No. 11 with the 30% limit on “off-shore” OCC. Of 17 attendees who commented on the proposed OCC changes at the summit, only Paul England, midwest general manager at Pratt Industries, Conyers, Ga., reading a prepared statement from the company, advocated the creation of OCCB.
“With all of the offshore OCC in the marketplace today – 10 million tons – it is time to establish a second grade of OCC, or a ‘B’ grade,” England said. “This will allow us to have a brown grade containing some OCC and other brown grades like grocery bag.”
Don Majka, vice president - commodity marketing and sourcing at Waste Management Inc., in Buffalo, said a secondary OCC grade would complicate sorting operations.
“The last thing we need is somebody on the tipping floor having to be responsible for deciding which pile to put the corrugated on,” he said.
Brian Hawkinson, executive director - recovered fiber for the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), said the association’s member mills support keeping the present OCC definition.
After meeting with the Specification Committee following the comment period, Rosen announced that the committee would withdraw the amended OCC definition. The following day, PSI members rejected the new OCCB grade with a vote of 25 against and four in favor. All other proposals passed by at least a 2:1 margin.
Rosen said the new specifications could go into effect as soon as they are approved by the ISRI board of directors during the April conference.
“I don’t see any reason to delay (implementation),” he said. “It isn’t going to change how paper is packed.”
Planting the seeds for future consideration, the 135 attendees – PSI members and non-members - discussed other issues, including possible new or revised language defining contaminants, outthrows and prohibitives, along with moisture and health and safety issues related to paper bales.
Here's how PSI members voted on proposals presented at the New Orleans summit: