Raw materials for paper production – what is paper made from in Europe?
The basic raw material used to produce paper is wood, from which pulp is obtained. The types and species of wood processed by the paper industry could vary, as could the origin of that wood.
What is paper made of – types and species of trees
Softwood (75% of production) and hardwood (25% of production) are used for primary paper production in Poland and throughout Europe. It comes mainly from commercial forests, where planned tree cultivation is carried out for logging. Another source of wood is the so-called maintenance logging of other forests, carried out in order to provide neighboring trees with optimal conditions for growth and crown development.
The most popular species of wood for paper production are:
- spruce – 40.5%,
- pine (so-called paperwood) – 35%,
- birch – 11.4%,
- eucalyptus – 9.1%,
- beech – 1.5%,
- aspen – 1.2%
- other (hornbeam, ash, maple, acacia, oak, alder, poplar, willow, chestnut) – 1.3%.
The decline in paper production in recent years also translates into lower interest in the primary raw material. In 2023, the quantitative consumption of softwood species fell by 1.1%, and hardwood species by 5.7%.
Raw material for paper production "made in Europe"
According to the CEPI report, as much as 91% of the wood used for paper production in CEPI countries comes from their native forests . This is the highest rate since 2000 and a slight increase compared to 2022 (by 1 percentage point). Another 6.5% is wood imported from EU countries that are not CEPI members. Only 2.5% of the wood comes from outside Europe. This means that Europe is almost self-sufficient in terms of obtaining raw material for paper production .
At this point, it is also important to emphasize the role of the raw material, which is recycled paper. In 2023, more than 53 million tons of waste paper and other paper waste were recycled in CEPI countries and reused to produce paper products. Cardboard is the leader here – as much as 95% of cardboard and cardboard packaging is made from recycled paper.
Find out how paper is made in the first and subsequent cycles.
Wood chips – waste as a raw material for paper production
In addition to wood in bales, wood chips are also used to produce paper . These are small pieces of wood that are created as post-production waste from, among others, the furniture, sawmill, packaging and construction joinery industries. The scale of their use may be surprising – in 2023, as much as 21.4% of all wood intended for the paper industry were chips .
According to the authors of the CEPI report, the use of industrial waste in the form of wood chips for paper production is a significant contribution to the circular economy . Although CEPI traditionally does not consider it recycling, such use of wood chips falls within the definition commonly accepted in the waste industry. Considering the highest paper recycling rate in history (almost 80%), it can be said that CEPI countries have learned their lesson about circularity and are well on their way to creating a circular economy.
Source: European pulp & paper industry. Key statistics 2023, CEPI, https://www.cepi.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Key-Statistics-2023-FINAL.pdf